Concept
by Rainbowkittyblossomwings
Summary: The Platoon might be in the fight of their lives as dark secrets about their planet's history is uncovered. With Haru back in the Hinatas lives, the strange occult loving pekoponian brings back secrets connected to Keron, revealing a race of aliens that they used to prey upon. Questions start being asked like was the Keroro Platoon really sent to invade Pekopon?
1. Forever

**All right, so this story I've had on the back burner since I finished Happy End actually. I've had it plotted out and the summary for it for the last...2 years? But since it had been a while I decided to go over my entire summary and add more/change up things from my original plans. It took 3 weeks and I now have 54 pages of notes. Hopefully it will be worth it.**

 **Anyway, a little information about this fic. This is an in canon universe story mainly focusing on Keroro (Since I have plenty of Giroro stories and Kululu stories I decided I needed more Keroro stories since I mean he is the main character of sgt frog)**

 **I couldn't fit all the information about this fic into a summary but it mainly picks up somewhere along the end of the series when DK66 (the keronian super computer) tries to drag the platoon back to Keron. There are three ending episodes and that one is one of them.**

 **Another episode though that just sort of left things hanging and ended that I was interested by was at the very end of the series when Natsumi and Fuyuki's father- Haru returns. We don't see him at all, just the back of him, but we know he came back.**

 **This fic will focus on where that picks up. It will focus on Haru, the Keroro Platoon's adventures after that and conspiracies involving the Keron government. I will give more summary as the chapters go on, but I hope you enjoy it for now as a care-free sort of story and then it will pick up later on.**

 **I'm rating it M as of right now, for mentions of sexual content but I have no plans for smut scenes. Not because it might not happen I just don't want to write them for one main reason which I will get into when we near the sexual content.**

 **I hope you enjoy. Please tell me if you like the humor I sprinkled in.**

 **At the moment there will be 17 chapters.**

 **Also the cover image is a stock image from pizap and a cut out Keroro from a dvd box of the third movie? This is what happens when my sister does not want to draw cover art for me. Help me sister. Help me please.**

* * *

It was all over. DK66 had agreed that they'd stay on Pekopon and invade, and Keroro was free to continue his adventure.

Things were turning up for all of them, and Keroro felt a moment of peace in his invasion scheme.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the stars with the boy who had helped him become the invader he was today, his pekoponian friend Fuyuki, or his friend forever.

He let Fuyuki's hand pull Keroro over to his lap. "Look at that one!" Fuyuki laughed and smiled. "That star shines so brightly!"

Keroro smiled as Fuyuki laughed on the roof of his house, looking at the stars with him. It was all so serene and peaceful.

Sure, he and Fuyuki had done things like this like looking at the stars almost every night, but it was always fun. _It's the same as always, but I like it that way._

Keroro never wanted things to change. And he was happy that during their time on Pekopon nothing had ever changed. Everybody still acted exactly the same, nobody had grown and developed, especially not him, and everybody was exactly the same as they had been the previous year.

Sure their invasion seemed endless, but Keroro was happy about that. He liked playing around with Fuyuki. He liked his life that was stuck permanently in this child like innocence.

"Look! A shooting star!" Fuyuki pointed. "Make a wish!"

Keroro nodded and made his happy little wish.

"What did you wish for?" Fuyuki asked.

"To have gundam models for all eternity." Keroro admitted. That was a typical wish for him. He would even sacrifice invasion money to his hoarding problem.

"Sarge! You're not supposed to have a wish like that!" Fuyuki scolded but laughed. "I made a nicer wish."

"Oh yeah? And what was it?" Keroro asked, nudging his elbow.

"I wished that we could be friends forever." Fuyuki hugged Keroro tightly.

Keroro grinned as the pekoponian boy hugged him like a pillow. Fuyuki was always so innocent. He always answered so honestly about everything and gladly gave people his heart- he was always searching for new friends.

He was easy to keep happy, but when you made him angry he was a force to be reckoned with. Luckily Fuyuki was not angry.

"We will be!" Keroro reassured. "You didn't need to waste a wish on that! You could have wished for something nicer like an ice cream sundae, or a new rare ramen flavor or a cute rich girl or...Wait, you already got one of those."

Fuyuki looked confused, but just laughed. "Stars can't grant wishes anyway. That's why I wished on something that can realistically happen and I intend to happen." Fuyuki smiled. "...You will be here forever, right, sarge?" Suddenly his voice was a little shaky. It had a little bit of doubt in it.

Ah, the childish and innocent ways of doubting the term 'forever'. Just having small insecurities and fears that things wouldn't remain blissful forever.

"Probably?" Keroro shrugged. He would sure try. But he didn't really like thinking about the future.

Fuyuki pouted, Keroro was not doing a very good job to dispel his fears.

"What does forever mean to you, sarge?" Fuyuki finally asked. He stared Keroro straight in the eyes.

Keroro tried to keep looking at the stars. _Oh geez, I don't really like serious conversations like these. The future freaks me out._ Keroro tried to avoid eye contact but finally relented in giving him an answer.

"Forever is an abstract concept." Keroro managed to say something somewhat smart and philosophical. "I never really think too hard about the future or the past. Thinking about those two things gets you too frightened about the unknown or hung up on failures." Keroro explained.

Fuyuki nodded. "That….Makes sense." He smiled. There was nothing to worry about! Keroro's answer was appropriate.

"Anyway I like the present! I like the fun times I have now invading and spending time with you Fuyuki and the rest of the Hinatas!" Keroro hugged him again.

"Ha ha ha..." Fuyuki laughed awkwardly. "I don't think you'll ever complete that invasion thing." Not with him and Natsumi in the way.

Keroro ignored him and just hugged his friend. Being with Fuyuki right now...The present and both their happiness in their childish innocence was enough for him.

He didn't want to think about anything else.

* * *

It was when Keroro was leaving Fuyuki's room that he ran into Giroro. He didn't know what Giroro was doing in the house so late, perhaps looking for him.

"Hey." Giroro greeted. "I heard your conversation with Fuyuki on the roof."

"Eavesdropper." Keroro teased.

"It's not my fault! Your childish laughing is super annoying and easy to hear from my tent!" Giroro threw up his arms to defend himself. "At least I didn't interrupt anything like Kululu would have."

Keroro frowned. He would have sarcastically clapped to Giroro for not interrupting but he was too tired to be sarcastic. That and it was more of Kululu's and Tamama's thing. "...So? What is it you wanted?"

"I wanted...To remind you not to ignore reality too much." Giroro looked at the ground guiltily. "The invasion won't really last forever. So we won't really be on this planet forever."

Keroro frowned. What was Giroro getting at?

"Look, we just had a very close encounter with being pulled off of the planet thanks to that super computer DK66. We know Keron is getting kinda tired of this invasion. Thankfully your temper tantrum surprisingly managed to somehow convince them to let us stay?" Giroro reminded. He was still confused about that.

"Not temper tantrum. Negotiation." Keroro corrected.

"You were crying, pounding your fists on the ground and had snot on your face." Giroro sighed. "God, how did you become the sergeant in this platoon?"

"Because my dad's name is sergeant?" Keroro suggested.

"...You don't seriously think your dad's name is Demon Sergeant, right…?" Giroro asked slightly concerned.

Keroro laughed awkwardly. "Of course not! His name is Dad."

Giroro cleared his throat awkwardly. He wasn't about to break Keroro's bubble and hopes and dreams. Keroro would just have to discover some things himself. "Anyway...The invasion won't last forever. We can't be wasting time laughing and playing with the pekoponians. You need to have your head fully in the invasion!" It was a line Giroro had tried to tell Keroro many times.

"B-but you're also doing it...You were laughing with Master Natsumi just a few hours ago..." Keroro pointed out.

Giroro glared at him a gun in his hand. Apparently he was telling Keroro that never happened. Giroro was chief hypocrite on Pekopon but nobody would tell him that. "I am nothing like you. You need to get your head in the invasion because unlike you I don't want to be stuck on this planet my whole life!" He yelled.

"B-but Natsumi-" Keroro tried to use one of Giroro's many weaknesses to calm him.

"I came here to prove myself to Keron, nothing more! And I will prove myself to Keron. Keroro...I'm afraid of being stuck on here forever. And if we are eternally invading because of you, I'll never forgive you!" Giroro looked angry. He almost reached out to grab Keroro's arms and shake him but stopped himself.

He tried to steady his breathing to continue to pull apart Keroro's happy conversation with Fuyuki. He needed to be calm.

"That...And forever doesn't really exist, unlike what Fuyuki said. How can he say he wants to be friends with all of us for the rest of his life? He's basically a child." Giroro reminded. "There's a chance he'll grow out of aliens eventually and his obsession towards them is just a phase. A lot of children have obsessions that they grow out of. He might grow out of us….After all, that's all our merit to him. Aliens."

Keroro looked hurt. He knew there was some truth to what Giroro was saying. Fuyuki did have a very one-track mind. And it wasn't like they shared many common interests besides him being an alien. It wasn't like Fuyuki liked gundam models.

 _Giroro's right...Staying on this planet just for someone else is bad for this entire platoon...And there are other issues about making our invasion longer._ Fear and insecurities were beginning to cloud Keroro's mind because of Giroro's words.

 _What if Fuyuki dies?_ One of the biggest floated up. _Our lifespans are so different! He'll eventually die and I'll be all alone!_ Keroro was covering his eyes and shaking. Why did Giroro have to remind him about the future?

 _No, no...Get a hold of yourself. You were never one to think about the future._ Keroro tried to calm down. _I don't live in the past either like Dororo does, resenting it always. I just live in the present._ He stopped shaking.

"Thanks for the advice but Fuyuki's not like that. And even if he is I want to enjoy the time that I have now. Who needs worries? I'm sergeant Keroro and I do what I want." Keroro insisted.

He ignored Giroro and headed off to bed, walking away from him.

Curling up into his own bed was easy. And it was easy to throw away the words that Giroro had told him, the worries.

 _Next week will just be a normal week of adventures. I don't know what weird things will happen. Will we get shrunk? Fight more cavitians? I don't know but it will be normal for us._

It would be normal. Everything would somehow be resolved by the end of the day. Nothing would continue or progress. It would just be like an endless hamster wheel of adventures. Like 358 episodes of life.

More adventures would definitely happen, but nothing too new. Nothing that would change him. Keroro knew this and was more than ready and excited for it.

He happily went to sleep, excited for what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

The colonel took a sip out of his coffee mug. He slammed it back down on the table surveying the troops keronian troops in front of him, the last of his patience wearing thin.

Not all of the people sitting at the circular table were his troops or under his division and missions that he was in charge of. Some of them were in fact working behind the scenes on one of his most phenomenally known mission- The invasion to Pekopon, and some were in fact his bosses, generals who highly outranked him.

Still, hidden in his shroud of darkness he knew this meeting was important, and they had much to talk about.

"The emperor unfortunately can not spare his precious time to attend this meeting." One of the generals said who was able to speak to their emperor far more than the colonel was. "So I will be taking notes in his place."

The colonel took note of this gentleman to pay him his respects.

"Not like much was going to be done at this meeting anyway." The general sighed sarcastically. "Each time we have one of these meetings we're no closer to success than last time."

The colonel did not lose his anger at the insult. A good keronian soldier knew when to stay calm and to not yell at superiors. Anyone who would not know such a vital rule was just not fit for the military and was labeled disobedient.

"So we all know why this meeting is taking place. It's just one of our periodical meetings to check our facts and gather information." The colonel reminded tapping some papers and sorting them.

"We want information about Pekopon!" A general said impatiently. "News on the planet. How are things going on it? Is the mission progressing successfully or is it at the same stand still it was at last time?"

The colonel made no facial expression. His dear friend though, the Demon Sergeant nervously laughed though and pulled at his own collar.

 _He needs to learn how to conceal his emotions better or he'll never grow more in rank._ The colonel thought to himself. He wasn't sure if the Demon Sergeant wanted to grow in rank though. He seemed obedient and happy to just be a sergeant- and a famous one granted the title of Demon.

It was enough for the usually happy green frog. He hid his worries behind his fake mustache, trying to smooth it out.

"My team has gathered a variety of data points about Pekopon. We will begin to go over them now and facts about the planet." Slide shows appeared with tables, graphs, pictures that had been gathered by the Keroro Platoon and other things.

The colonel began to give his lecture, always having a cool and composed tone. However he can see through the crowd that nobody was incredibly cool and composed like he was.

They all looked worried and impatient. They were wearing their emotions on their arms, instead of hiding them in the shadows.

There was so much desperation in the eyes of the generals. So much hurry, like they were desperately clinging to any hope they could, but all they got was boring information that was not appeasing them.

"Stop this boring information! This was the same stuff you told us last year!" Someone finally shouted.

The colonel put away his pointer stick. "Sometimes recaps are for the best so everybody is on the same page. After all we have new members in the room." His eyes drifted to a younger keronian that he hadn't remembered seeing before. Must have been a new recruit that had somehow managed to rise through the ranks and reach this meeting room.

An impressing feet. Even young him hadn't done that. Why, he looked about as old as his friend's the Demon Sergeant's friend's youngest son! He believed his name had been Giroro.

The keronian was green, not the lightest of green shades, a little darker more like a leaf. He wore two tiny top hats on top of his normal hat as if they were horns. He also wore a nice little collar, circular with alternating facial expressions on it's design.

Sharp high heeled boots were on his feet, a pure white color.

He approved of how fancily dressed the young man was. It looked like he was prepared to rise in the ranks.

The boy's insignia was two tiny keronian hands clasped together, dressed in gloves. It could have been anyone's hands, but you could only really assume it was his.

The colonel put the new member out of his mind, after all there was nothing he was doing that particularly drew his attention. He was just a little interested that someone newer was in the meeting. That was a rare sight.

"New members, who cares?" Another rowdier keronian chanted. "You know why we're all here and what information we're seeking."

One of the generals hushed the rowdy keronian. "What my associate means to say, I believe, in more polite terms, is if there's been any luck in finding the creature we've been tracking. We do not care about new research on the trees on Pekopon or how much money is being spent on the operation. We want to know about the creatures."

The colonel tried not to frown. Of course the conversation would come back to their main goals- which he had no new information on.

However the new recruit seemed to save him and distract the generals. He shyly raised his hand. "Excuse me." He asked. "I'm a little new here so I'm a little confused. What is this creature that we've been tracking? I haven't heard of any creatures on pekopon except for those barbaric Pekoponians."

The Demon Sergeant looked surprised. "You...You don't know?"

The green keronian shook his head. "I'm new."

The Demon Sergeant looked around at one of the Generals.

"He's gotten clearance for this meeting." The General explained. "I guess in all my actual work I just forgot to clue him in."

The Demon Sergeant took pity on the poor boy and laughed for a moment. "Well! We better explain the situation to you or else you'll be pretty confused!" Just like the idiot he was he got out of the chair and slapped the younger member's back. "You sure are lucky, these creatures are a rare military secret. I would have given anything to know about them at your age!"

"You wouldn't have given anything because you didn't know you were out of the loop." The colonel sighed tiredly.

The Demon Sergeant ignored him. "Did you listen to your history lessons when you were in school, kid?"

The young keronian nodded.

"Well then, you know our history. How generations ago hundreds and hundreds of thousands of years ago, perhaps millions, how the Viper used to prey on us and eat us, correct?" The Demon Sergeant asked.

"Of course. Every young keronian knows to be afraid of the Viper at a very young age. And then when you grow you learn to take that fear and fight. They are still our enemies but they are not stronger than us. We are no longer in that age." The young keronian agreed.

"Well, they weren't the only alien creature that ate another alien creature. That just wouldn't be natural or fair, right?" The Demon Sergeant asked. "There was a species we ate too, long ago. One that helped us advance in society and bring us power. They were called flyians and they resembled small fly aliens."

"And we're tracking them…..To eat them?" The young keronian was a little confused.

Nods went around the room.

The Demon Sergeant laughed. He hadn't completed his story. "We hunted them to near extinction. The survivors fled and we've been trying to find them ever since."

"There has always been a principle of three." A general explained. "Like rock, paper, scissors. Paper beats rock, rock beats scissors and so on. It is the same for us and the Vipers and the flyians. The Vipers eat us. We eat the flyians and the Flyians can control and eat the dead Viper. It is the natural order. However the flyians did not like their role and fled."

"And things became unbalanced in the Vipers favor!" The young keronian realized.

"That and they were apparently delicious. They brought us to the age of invading and technology that we exist to today. We haven't advanced at all since they disappeared. We need them." The Demon Sergeant explained

The colonel nodded, adding nothing to the story. He could see everyone listening as the greed and desire filled their faces. The hunger. It was just their primal nature to want these flies. And after having heard of them it's just natural for a keronian to want one, despite never having a taste. It was in their nature and genetics.

"There are….Rumors that the creature has been on Pekopon or may be hiding there." The colonel finally spoke up. "But despite small traces that we found in the beginning of deploying a platoon there, there has been no new signs."

There were sighs and irritation across the room's face. That was not the information they wanted. And after holding out so much new hope, their dreams had been shattered yet again.

 _Well what do you expect. This is a tough job. I doubt I'm going to be the one to find them although I'll do everything I can to try._ The colonel tried not to show irritation.

Still he wondered if there was anything he could do to smooth things over. He didn't want his bosses to be mad and throw him out of the mission and strip him of rank.

There were distressed chatters if they should have a new approach or a new man for the job. The Colonel heard a few of them around the table as he tried to figure out what to do.

There was a buzzing sound. He turned around and saw the large monitor behind him trying to connect for a video call.

 _Perhaps that will distract them._ Sure it was a bad time, but he knew who was trying to contact him. They thought it was helping informing him.

"I believe that is our platoon we deployed some time ago to the Pekopon Invasion." The colonel said calmly. "Please quiet down. We do not want them to hear any classified information they do not have access to because of their ranks."

He turned on the monitor. Perhaps seeing Pekopon from the source would make the generals happier.

Keroro waved on the screen. "Hello out there~! Oh! You're busy." He looked awkward. "Man, there sure are a lot of generals in that room...I mean it's scary enough talking to a colonel, should I call back?"

"No, sergeant Keroro, it is fine. Please give us your status report on the Pekopon invasion." The colonel requested.

"Oooh! Is my dad in the room? Hi dad!" Keroro waved frantically.

The colonel cleared his throat and glared. He knew Keroro could probably not see him glaring though. Keroro never saw his face or anything but his eyes. They were all covered in darkness.

"Sergeant Keroro. Speak. Give us news." One of the Generals ordered, talking to Keroro directly.

Keroro turned pale. He was beginning to suspect he had interrupted a very professional meeting. He did not like this.

He saluted trying to stand tall. "Things are doing fine sirs! And...Maybe madams and others." Keroro tried to get things correct. "Are you all male generals or…?"

"Stay focused, Sergeant Keroro!" The colonel angrily ordered. "And we have female generals. You should know that."

"...Oh..." Keroro blushed. "Um...Well, things are doing completely fine. I still live with the Hinatas and someday we will take them down! They're just so tough. If I beat one another will defeat us. I mean they have an admiral in their house! I told you that although Master Natsumi is strong Admiral Mama is like 10x as strong right?" Keroro ranted.

"Yes, you did." The colonel rolled his eyes. "Continue with your status report."

"Well, we've been having a good month. Things were shaky after that DK66 incident...You know, the one where you tried to bring us all back and stop the invasion and I had to negotiate with a super computer?" Keroro asked. "But in the end you and the computer let us return to Pekopon and invade!"

"You cried, not negotiated." The colonel sighed. "But details, details. Continue."

"Great things have happened in that month! And I'm not talking about me finally defeating Master Natsumi in a pekoponian game she calls _'checkers'_ although I'm close. I can feel it." Keroro looked at his hand and clenched it.

"Sergeant **Keroro**..." The colonel tried to get him back on track. His voice was a low growl.

Keroro eeped. "Well, Admiral Papa has finally come home!" Keroro's smile was broad as he finally got to his big news. "This might make the invasion harder since there's now one more Hinata to deal with but Master Fuyuki is so happy! It's so great isn't it?"

The colonel sighed and leaned his head on his hand. He should have known it was just something small like that. It was always something like that in these reports.

Keroro continued to give reports about how many dishes he had broken and his latest fights with a pekoponian named Natsumi.

"Perhaps we should be wrapping this up, Sergeant Keroro..." The colonel asked trying not to outwardly insult him.

Keroro nodded. "All right. I'll just show you Admiral Papa so you can have an outward image of him."

Keroro moved along with the camera. "Private Tamama, tilt it over there so Admiral Papa can wave!"

"Yes sir!" They heard Tamama's voice on the other end and saw a brief flash of him. He must have been the one recording this message.

He moved the camera to a pink haired man who was laughing and talking to the blue haired pekoponian known as Fuyuki.

"That's admiral papa- given name Haru Hinata. He's a tough new foe that just came back from adventuring!" Keroro explained.

The colonel wasn't paying attention to Keroro's words. Instead he was paying attention to a giant siren in the middle of the room with a red light blaring.

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

It went off. All the Keronians in the room frantically ran to gather data reports and write things down. The colonel shut off the video recording before saying good-bye to Keroro.

They all looked at each other frantically. "The siren...It's going off..." The demon sergeant realized.

The colonel sat down and for once, he smiled. "I know. That man...Has some ties to the flyians. We've finally found our lead."

Finally after all these years they had some luck.

* * *

Keroro turned off the video camera. "Well...There were some loud noises or something… And then the screen went black. I wonder what was going on?"

"Maybe they hung up on us." Tamama suggested. "If they did..." He pounded his hand into his fist.

"Nah, must have been a faulty transmission. They would have never just hung up on me." Keroro decided optimistically.

Tamama wondered if that was true, but after a moment of thinking decided that it must be if Keroro was so positive about it. "Well, maybe things were only faulty on their end! We still have a camera out. We could do loads of fun things with it!" He suggested.

"Oooh, ooh, like getting valuable blackmail on Giroro or Natsumi? Catching them in some humiliating moment?" Keroro suggested. He loved causing mischief. The video camera in Tamama's hands was looking more and more inviting.

"Well...I mean we could do that….Or we could do something even more fun!" Tamama suggested. He managed to walk up to Keroro a bit to stand by his side. A little closer than two normal people stood. "Like..." He inched even more closer. "We could take pictures of us in cute moments or video record a documentary of our love story!" He suggested flirty.

"Ummm...Maybe we'll put the documentary of a love story on the shelf for some invasion plan. I'm sure that could sell a lot. Maybe I'll cast Giroro as a fair maiden and Kululu as the other person in the story. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Keroro agreed. Giroro probably wouldn't like it but that was the fun in it.

"Boo." Tamama frowned. Was Keroro just choosing to ignore his flirting or was he just like completely totally dense and not realizing he was in no way talking about the invasion?

He realized as Keroro wandered off that it was denseness. "We should go play with Natsumi and Fuyuki instead of playing with a camera!" Keroro suggested pointing. "Doesn't that sound like fun?" He got easily distracted.

"Awww, but I wanted to play with you. It's a rare moment where I don't sense that woman around at all!" Tamama suggested.

Keroro just looked confused. "We can play later." He said in a way that Tamama knew that Keroro thought Tamama wanted to play in a childish sense and in no sort of romantic way.

Keroro wandered off to watch Haru play with his kids. Oddly enough Natsumi seemed to be laughing and smiling.

Fuyuki was smiling way wider than Keroro had ever seen him smile too. It was odd. Keroro had thought he had already seen all of the varieties of Fuyuki's smile but apparently he hadn't.

"Get ready, dad! I'm going to squirt you!" It was a warm day for spring, and Fuyuki, Natsumi and Haru were having a squirt gun fight, running around in the backyard. Oddly enough Fuyuki was happy enough to do something physical.

Keroro sat down on the ground to watch. _I thought he didn't like water very much. Or running._ Keroro thought to himself as he watched Fuyuki get squirt by his dad instead. Fuyuki just laughed and laughed.

Was this the changes that Giroro had warned him about? Fuyuki growing up? Even Natsumi seemed to be acting differently?

 _I've never seen him this happy. Was I really his best friend forever if I hadn't seen this?_ Keroro wondered. He'd never seen Fuyuki look so happy around an alien.

Haru laughed as he reloaded his gun with water. "I may not be as physical as your Mother, but I can get a few shots in."

"Yeah right! I've taken on way stronger than you!" Natsumi declared, jumping in the air with two twin squirt guns dodging every small strand of water that was coming her way. She hit her father and he laughed.

"You'll never be able to defeat Natsumi. She's taken on invading aliens and destroyed us." Giroro said, his eyes perpetual hearts as he waved a small flag that said 'Team Natsumi' in small letters, followed by many hearts.

He didn't seem to mind that his tent was getting soaked in the cross-fire. He was just so happy to be watching Natsumi handle a squirt gun.

 _For someone who warned me about someone else 'changing', he sure doesn't seem to be having any worries._ Keroro thought to himself as he looked at Giroro cheering whenever she got a hit on her father.

Keroro tried to worm his way to Giroro's side without being caught in the crossfire. The squirt gun fight would just be a normal squirt gun fight if not for Natsumi's hard core moves. Fuyuki was lucky to have her on his team against their father or else he'd be doomed.

Haru was getting soaked by Natsumi, and to a much lesser extent Fuyuki when he was stunned by Natsumi's hits and Fuyuki could get a hit in. He eventually scooped both his kids into a giant hug. "I've missed you both so much! You were so little when I left and now you're so big and grown."

"D-dad! Your hug is too tight!" Natsumi complained, not really minding. "It's hard to aim for you."

"Maybe that's my scheme. You're getting too many shots. You're way too tough, Natsumi." Haru told her, teasingly.

She tried to aim her gun but hit Giroro instead.

"H-hey!" Giroro looked shocked. He was just an innocent bystander.

"Get revenge on her. I'm holding her down. Join my team. You look tough and god knows I need it." Haru begged.

"That's cheating! You can't have Giroro on your team! He knows how to handle actual guns!" Natsumi reminded.

"So do you." Fuyuki frowned. "So do you." Honestly he didn't want Giroro on Natsumi's team either. Nobody would be able to beat them.

"Oh, I'm not going to be on your team..." Giroro got up from his seat. He was dragged into this now. He summoned a squirt gun, which he apparently had in his weapon arsenal and filled it with water. "If you're going to drag me into the game I'll take your challenge. But I'll be on my own team. For Keron!"

Haru released Natsumi and Fuyuki. "Eep!"

Natsumi laughed. "I'll take you on! Come on, Fuyuki!"

"I...I am afraid." Fuyuki admitted.

Giroro nodded. "I'll try not to hit you. There's only one opponent I'm aiming to take down."

A spark of rivalry went between Natsumi and Giroro's eyes and they were both off shooting at each other.

"Your...Your sister grew to be way more hardcore than I imagined she would..." Haru realized as Giroro and Natsumi jumped around.

"Y-yeah..." Fuyuki got a cheap shot on his father with his squirt gun. "But I'm still on her team!"

"Hey! Get back here!" Haru yelled and laughed. He eventually accidentally hit Giroro again and Giroro's attention was turned to a three-way brawl.

"Are we going to play with them?" Tamama asked.

Keroro frowned. He didn't know if he wanted to go up against Natsumi. Before he could answer Tamama had picked up water balloons instead.

"HEYA! Giroro, I'm joining up!" He yelled.

"Welcome, soldier. Help me defeat the pekoponians." Giroro welcomed.

Tamama giggled and started throwing balloons.

"Hey! Dad and I are weak!" Fuyuki pointed out.

"I can help-" Keroro wanted to join the game too now.

"Keroro!" He heard Aki's voice call for him, inside the house. Now that Tamama was having fun and hanging out with Natsumi and Fuyuki and their father he decided to listen to Aki. Perhaps she had something for him.

"Yeah?" He stepped inside.

Aki was cooking at the stove. She had a big smile on her face. Another smile that he had never seen on Aki.

 _Natsumi, Fuyuki, Aki...I've never seen them like this before. It can't just be the weather, right?_ Keroro asked.

Were they really that different and happy to have Haru back? Where had he even gone? He had barely heard about Haru in his time here. He had only seen picture frames about the guy. Giroro had always advised him to not ask about it because it was probably a touchy subject.

"Could you help me make lunch? I was planning for us all to have a party today, you know to celebrate everything." Aki told him. "But I'm a little short of hands and I didn't want to pull Natsumi away from bonding with her father."

"Why couldn't you have asked someone else? I was about to join the game." Keroro pouted.

"Because you're just as much a part of this house as them and know how to cook a little more than Tamama and Giroro." Aki pointed out. "Dororo doesn't live here so I can't ask him and..."

"Kululu curries everything?" Keroro finished.

"Yeah. His curry is delicious and I asked him to bring some, but...I don't want everything to be curry." Aki smiled. "Can't find Mois to help right now either. Maybe she'll show up, maybe she won't."

Keroro nodded. So the task fell to him. He helped by peeling and cutting vegetables on his high stool. "So we're having a party?"

"A celebration. I've invited the whole platoon and Saburo, Momoka and Koyuki!" Aki smiled. "I thought we should celebrate a few things. Like your victory over DK66 and you guys staying on Earth"

Keroro brightened up. That was a good thing to celebrate.

"And also Haru's return!" Aki brightened up after she said that. Her hands hurried at making the large meal with excitement.

Keroro noticed it. _Why is she so happy he returned?_ He could understand Natsumi and Fuyuki missing their father, but...He had always kind of assumed Aki and Haru were separated. She never mentioned him, never spoke about him. But he could see the love in her eyes now, how incredibly happy she was to have her husband with her again. _So they aren't...Divorced?_ Keroro wondered. Or were they trying to make things work again.

After a moment of thinking about it, he realized he wouldn't have been able to recognize a divorced couple anyway. He only ever knew one family that had a divorce and it wasn't his. Even that, although he had been so close to it, he knew barely anything about it. It had been so hush hush.

Giroro still never talked about it or his mom. He had just always assumed that Natsumi's situation had been the same as Giroro's and that's why Giroro was a little more in touch with having a single parent.

Keroro had no tact and decided to just ask. "So...You're happy he's back?"

"Of course I am." Aki smiled.

"But...I always thought you two were divorced. I mean you never spoke about him. He wasn't around." Keroro asked too many personal questions.

Aki's chopsticks slowed as she stirred a soup. "We weren't divorced." She had a small, but sad smile on her face. "Haru was just away. He might have been half way across the world but we still loved each other very much. We were still in a committed and happy relationship."

"But-" Keroro frowned.

"Momoka's parents don't live together and are sometimes halfway across the world from each other too. But they still love each other very much. They just both are focusing on their own goals and careers at the moment. Someday they'll reunite and be all the happier that they took that time for themselves." Aki reminded Keroro. "It's the same."

Keroro gave a small nod and continued chopping. He didn't really understand it.

* * *

"Food's ready! It's time to celebrate!" Aki called, "Stop fighting. And Fuyuki, Natsumi..." Aki frowned. "Go change before any of our guests arrive. You're all wet."

Haru grinned sheepishly. "They had a little too much fun in the water."

"You too, honey. You change too." Aki told him. "You're not dripping all over the house."

Giroro and Tamama looked awkward. They didn't have clothes to change. They just dried easily though. They didn't remain wet very long.

"I brought some candy from Momocchi's house for the meal!" Tamama offered handing wet candy to Aki.

Aki winced. She took it though and decided to go dry it.

"And I made sweet potatoes that are not wet." Giroro told her. Aki pat his head.

Everybody started heading inside sitting on the floor around a large mat. The entire living room was cleared so that there would be enough room for everybody. Food was set on the table in the dining room.

"I'm here!" Momoka knocked at the door, smoothing out her skirt. "Is...Is Fuyuki around?" She blushed. "Paul… Bring in the expensive buffet table from all around the world! And Miss Aki if you need anything else I can bring it too. I have brought chefs waiting outside with Paul. Famous ones. Just say the word and they're here."

Aki giggled awkwardly. "That's all right, Momoka. Fuyuki will take a minute. He's taking off his wet clothes and getting dressed."

Momoka blushed extremely and sat next to Tamama. "Naked...Fuyuki..." She drooled dreamily.

"Ew." Tamama teased. "Don't be gross."

"Who was it that was talking about Keroro's butt in great detail just this morning?" Momoka raised an eyebrow.

"Eek! Don't say that out loud!" Tamama begged. They both smiled after a moment and started laughing.

 _I wonder what they're laughing about._ Keroro thought, completely missing everything.

Natsumi and Fuyuki eventually came down with Haru. It was around the same time Koyuki and Dororo flipped down from their ceiling.

"Lady Koyuki and I arrived here early so we decided to wait on your ceiling." Dororo told them. "We're glad to be here." He bowed. "I brought some natto for everybody to share."

"And I made some iron rice balls!" Koyuki grinned.

"Wait, what did you say about being on my ceiling for the entire time?" Natsumi asked a little concerned. "You know if you wanted to be included in our squirt gun fight or hang out with us you could have just...dropped off the ceiling and not been weird."

"I insisted it was polite to not be too early." Dororo apologized. "The fault lies with me, do not blame Lady Koyuki."

"Anyway it was fun!" Koyuki smiled. "That and Dororo asked if he could play with you..."

"But you didn't hear me..." Dororo's eyes got all watery! "I was here the whole time guys! And I wanted to be in Keroro's report video too! Why did you forget about me and let only Tamama help?"

"Uhhh because we're tight. Obviously." Tamama replied. "No room for a third wheel."

Dororo just sniffled. "Oh...I didn't know it was like that."

"I don't think it is." Giroro whispered.

Aki put Dororo's food on a table and Koyuki's foods in the trash where it would cause the least damage.

The next guest did not come knocking on the door, because that would be too traditional. Instead he came hopping the fence.

"Hey guys, am I too late?" Saburo asked.

"Why'd you hop the fence?" Giroro narrowed his eyes at him. "Isn't that kinda...Delinquent? There's a front door for a reason."

Saburo laughed and waved his hand. "But what's the fun in that! Anyway it's cool to hop fences. Ooh! Food. Sorry I didn't bring anything. Was I supposed to? I can draw something up if you want."

"Nobody's eating paper." Giroro growled.

"That would be great, Saburo. I know your reality pen acts different than regular paper." Aki pointed out.

"It doesn't taste like paper." Saburo rolled his eyes laughing at Giroro.

"S-saburo! It's nice to see you! Have you met my dad yet?" Natsumi introduced.

"Nah, haven't. Nice to meet you." Saburo waved to him. He looked around. "Where's Kululu? Did he ditch? Do I need to retrieve him?"

Suddenly the floor panel opened. Haru looked sort of surprised as he jumped away.

"Speak of the devil and he will appear! Ku, ku, ku." Kululu spun up on the floor panel with Mois. "Would say I'm sorry I'm late but I'm not."

"He wanted his curry to be perfect. He was like 'it needs to take 24 hours exactly before it can be removed from the pot, or else it will only taste sub-par.'." Angol Mois giggled.

"Hey! Don't make fun of the curry! Curry making is serious business!" Kululu was shocked that she would even dare. "Well worth the time."

"Anyway, we're sorry if we were too late. Thank you for inviting both of us." Angol Mois handed Aki cookies she had made.

Tamama screamed. "AUGH! I was the one to bring the sweets! And now you're trying to out-do me!"

Obviously Angol Mois's cookies were put in front of Tamama's soggy candy. Hers weren't wet after all.

Tamama almost destroyed them with their sweet glow. "I...I can't be mad at you cookies." He finally decided before snatching them. "You're only lucky I'm addicted to sugar, woman. Or else these would be all spat on."

"I'm glad you're not doing that?" Angol Mois was just so confused.

The entire group sat down and began to eat. Keroro noticed yet again all the smiling and laughing surrounding Fuyuki, Natsumi, Haru and Aki. They were all sitting rather close together and sharing jokes and stories.

They really looked like a happy family. He had never seen them all so peaceful like this.

Haru eventually stood up to greet everyone. "Thank you for coming today! We just wanted to celebrate everyone being together and being happy. And I also wanted to thank you for taking care of my two beloved children and being their friends. I've spent a long time traveling the world, researching the occult so I'm so happy to meet you all, and realize that the aliens I was looking for were back home this entire time. Congratulations Fuyuki for being so close to aliens!" Haru clapped.

 _Occult researcher? So...Kinda like Fuyuki._ Keroro couldn't help but feel the nagging idea in his head that Fuyuki may have befriended him out of loneliness. _Did...Did he hope knowing me would bring his father back? Because his father would be lured in my the aliens?_ He dismissed the thought.

He couldn't doubt Fuyuki's pure intentions. That wasn't Fuyuki. Fuyuki was his friend.

"Please to meet you, Haru Hinata. Name's Saburo. Friend of Fuyuki's and Natsumi's. I'm their upperclassmen." Saburo introduced himself to Haru first. He gave Fuyuki a little noogie.

"Saburo!" Fuyuki laughed. "You're embarrassing me in front of dad."

Haru laughed. "You look like a nice guy. Good friend for both my children."

Saburo gave a thumbs up.

Koyuki was next up. "I'm Koyuki Azumaya! I'm a ninja. Natsumi's my best friend." Koyuki nuzzled up to Natsumi.

"A...A ninja, huh? I never thought I would meet one of those. In fact I didn't really know they still existed." Haru looked a little surprised. "You sure do meet some interesting people."

"I'm Momoka Nishizawa...You may have heard of me. I literally own half the world. I'm super famous and rich." Momoka was oddly bragging. "I'm of very good breed. I'm sure my children would be very sweet and nice, if someone….wanted to be a grandparent there best bet would be me." She snapped her fingers and a bunch of gifts for Haru were dragged in by Paul. "I've researched you. Here, accept these texts and presents from some museums." Momoka told him.

She just smiled.

"Thanks?" Haru didn't understand what was going on. "I admit I would have been living under a rock if I didn't know who you were Miss Nishizawa. It's an honor to meet you in such a casual setting and I'm honestly really confused..."

"I also think I would be an excellent wife for any sons you just happen to have. I mean look at how pretty I am. This dress I'm wearing cost millions and my hair is so incredibly soft. I have a lot of trophies and I'm a world class martial artist and I really would pass on some great genes on any kids I had."

Fuyuki was very confused. He had never heard Momoka brag so much.

"What's...Your connection to my children?" Haru asked super confused.

"Oh. I'm...I'm Fuyuki's friend. A member in his occult club. I'm also interested in the occult." Momoka moved closer to Fuyuki and tried to work up the courage to rest her head on his shoulder. She eventually did.

"She's my only member! So she's my number one member!" Fuyuki beamed.

"Oh!" Haru smiled. "That's great. It's always nice to meet someone else interested in the occult. I admit Aki never was, so it's nice Fuyuki's met a girl into the occult."

Momoka started doing fist pumps. "The plan's working! He's supporting me and Fuyuki! I've been preparing for this for years the meeting with the father!"

"Yeah, you're a great pal for Fuyuki! I really like you! If Fuyuki had a brother I would imagine he'd be just like you. But you're like any good bro of Fuyuki's." Haru complimented.

Momoka's eye twitched. "B-brother? I'm like Fuyuki's brother?"

Haru nodded unaware he had said wrong. He was proving to be almost as dense as Fuyuki unaware this girl had a major crush on Fuyuki.

Aki winced. "Haru...Ummm...I had hoped you were over this denseness after us….Oooh boy." She sighed.

Momoka launched herself at Haru and grabbed at his collar. "Take it back. I am not like Fuyuki's brother. I am a cute girl." She growled and demanded.

Haru was frightened. He looked at Aki for help.

"You did kind of insult her." Aki pointed out. "I'm not helping you out of this mess."

"You are a cute girl. You're not Fuyuki's brother. You're like...His sister?" Haru suggested.

"I will have Fuyuki's babies. I will prove that to you someday!" Momoka declared.

"Umm...What?" Haru was so confused.

Momoka smiled and was back to her sweet self. She let Haru go. "Sorry about that. I would just prefer that you didn't see me as Fuyuki's family member. I hope you approve of me as a good choice for your son."

"Y-yeah...Y-yeah..." Haru wasn't sure what was going on or what he was approving. He had no idea. He just went back to meeting after meeting his children's friends. Best keep Momoka out of mind and the confusion she caused.

* * *

The potluck celebration wasn't just about celebrating Haru's return and him being there and getting to know him. It was also about celebrating that the keronians got to stay on Pekopon continuing their invasion.

Each of the humans were keeping somewhat near their keronian partners as they ate, making light chatter with them. Saburo was no exception.

"I know this thing is about celebrating you staying and all, but I don't really think you're ever going to succeed. Would kind of be a problem for me if you did after all." Saburo pointed out. He shoved some more food in his mouth. "So I kinda have to stand in your way and stop you." He smiled mischievously. "Still if you left it would be boring. So I am a little glad you stayed.

"Ku, in your dreams. You think you can stop me. All your power you got from me." Kululu reminded.

"Not all of it. I'm not just a guy with a pen. I have other qualities you know." Saburo reminded.

"Sorry, they were just so boring that I forgot about them." Kululu teased. "Ku, ku, ku. Agility? Every pekoponian except Fuyuki seems to have that at super human rates. Keroro calls it the 'anime rule'." He joked.

Saburo frowned. "Still. I wanted you to know, no hard feelings, but I'm not celebrating. I'm going to have to stop you if you get serious." He reminded.

"Don't worry, I don't blame you. I wouldn't celebrate staying here forever and longer either." Kululu laid down.

Saburo nodded. As long as Kululu understood that.

* * *

"I would miss you if you went back to Keron." Momoka finally said to Tamama while Fuyuki was talking to his father.

"I know. Don't worry! That's why we're partying. Because I'm still here!" Tamama smiled.

"If they wanted you to leave, I wouldn't let you. I'd fight with you against them. I'd help you stay!" Momoka reassured him. "Don't...Don't go home. You're mine. I don't want you to leave Tamama."

"Awwww, don't worry. I don't want to leave anyway!" Tamama smiled.

"I don't want any of you aliens to leave." Momoka admitted. "Life has been so much better and fun with you here."

"Well, that woman can leave." Tamama tried to negotiate. "And Kululu. He's kinda creepy."

Momoka nodded in agreement. "But you'll stay?"

"I'll stay." Tamama agreed.

Momoka hugged him. Tamama hugged his best friend back.

But then Momoka hugged too tight.

"Momochi! Too tight! Too tight!" Tamama squealed.

"Oops." Momoka giggled. She lightened her grip. Oxygen returned to Tamama.

They smiled at each other and giggled.

* * *

Dororo watched as everyone enjoyed themselves. People talking to their friends reassuring them that they would stay, the Hinatas bonding and being happier than he'd ever seen them in their lives. He smiled at the peaceful and happy memories.

"You know I would have never left you, lady Koyuki." He noticed that a few of them were talking about the DK66 scare. He decided to just ease Koyuki's worries.

"I know." Koyuki pat his head.

"Still I'm glad our circle of friends has enlarged. I might not have left but the rest of the platoon would have. And although I would have had the pekoponians I would have been slightly more alone." Dororo mused.

Koyuki nodded and pulled Dororo into her lap. She didn't really answer his words. Instead she looked at the room with a certain amount of nostalgia and envy.

"Lady Koyuki?" Dororo asked. She was lost in thought somewhere.

"Oh! Oh yeah. It's always nice to have more people in your life." Koyuki agreed.

"Is...Is that all?" Dororo asked. She had looked like she was thinking about something else.

"I was just...Remembering the feeling of being around such a large group of people. It reminded me of the feeling of family in my ninja village. It always was such a nice feeling that brought good grace and happiness." Koyuki's voice carried a small amount of sadness that she no longer had that feeling.

Dororo held Koyuki's hand tightly. He didn't want her to feel a moment of sadness. He wished there was some sort of action to communicate to her that he was here and would be here always.

Koyuki smiled at Dororo's small gesture. "I'm glad though that Natsumi has that feeling now. Her family has been reunited. She has a larger family. And it's always nice for a family to become larger."

"I always wanted to have a large family." Dororo agreed. "Someday I wish to have a million children."

Koyuki didn't look at him oddly. She just giggled a little. "I pity the person that has to give birth to those million children."

Dororo frowned. _Well...Some of my dreams were just shattered right there._ "B-but...But...Babies!"

Koyuki smiled and laughed for a moment but then got that far off distant look again as she watched everyone have such a large sense of community. She sighed as if she was wishing something.

Dororo knew exactly what she was wishing. After all they were always on the same wavelength. "You're wishing for the ninja village to reunite someday, aren't you?"

"Yeah...I mean I feel bad about it. But I hope that someday we can all be together again. They were all so dear to me." Koyuki confessed. Dororo had exposed her secret wish.

Dororo smiled softly and held Koyuki's hand tighter. "Your wish is a very good one. I liked them all too." He agreed.

"Really? All of them?" Koyuki asked. She knew Dororo hadn't been there as long as her. She had always kind of assumed he was only super close to her.

"Yes. They were all quite kind. Well, except Shigure. I wasn't the biggest of fans of him." Dororo frowned for a moment at Koyuki's male ninja friend who had tried less than stellar methods to take Koyuki away and bring her into his own clan with him. That and the whole attacking Koyuki's friends despite that she didn't want him to hadn't flown very well by Dororo's moral code.

Koyuki looked a little confused why Dororo didn't like Shigure. "Shigure wasn't always like that… And I'm sure he's nicer now."

"Still don't like him very much." Dororo stubbornly said.

Saburo cued into a small discussion and possible argument. This was where he excelled. He slinked over to cause mischief.

"I think he's just jealous, Koyuki." Saburo teased having heard a little bit of their conversation.

Dororo crossed his arms and glared at Saburo. Saburo wasn't helping this conversation at all. "Jealousy is beneath me." He proclaimed.

Saburo snickered because he didn't really believe him.

* * *

Giroro meanwhile wasn't talking about anything too sappy. Instead he was trying to serve food to Natsumi and dish her up some meat onto her plate and some potatoes with chopsticks.

 _Come on, Giroro. The way to a pekoponian woman's heart is through their stomach is what I heard someone say. This must mean that they're impressed by chopstick skills!_ He smiled. Finally something he was better than his brother at!

Natsumi would never be capable for falling for Garuru now. Because Giroro had impressive chopstick skills on his side.

He started throwing the food around with his chopsticks and jumping in the air to catch it like a show.

"Umm...I have no idea what you're doing. But this isn't the weirdest thing I've seen you do so I don't think I should scold you." Natsumi decided. She just wanted food. Why'd he have to be like this?

The image of Giroro rainbow dancing came to her mind. She wondered if somebody had tricked him yet again into doing something weird or Giroro was just not really understanding human culture again.

She sighed. It wasn't a big deal anyway. _As long as he doesn't start shooting at the food, it's fine._ She wondered if perhaps her standards were lowering when it came to weirdness from the frogs.

"Anyway, here is your sweet potato and meat, madam." Giroro tried to be impressive.

"Thanks? But I was actually coming for more rice too." Natsumi said awkwardly.

"Uhhh...Natsumi...I honestly haven't practiced any rice tricks yet. Dororo knows how to catch a single grain of rice with his chopsticks but I don't...Yet. I'm sorry." Giroro apologized. He felt ashamed. He was a failure of a soldier.

 _So Dororo is at fault!_ Natsumi blamed. That was new. "It's all right. Chopstick tricks aren't really...that cool anyway."

Giroro fell to his knees. "NOT AGAIN!" Had he done another stupid thing to impress Natsumi that was in no way impressive?

Natsumi giggled. She had no idea what he was trying to do. "You'll learn eventually." She tried to assure him that he'd get human culture eventually and not humiliate himself.

Giroro just tried not to cry from the pity as Natsumi left to go talk to her father. Giroro eventually followed her as he sat by her and her father's side.

"So...You're also friends with an alien?" Haru was a little confused. "I never knew you were into the occult, Natsumi. You always kind of seemed bored by the stuff as a kid."

"No, no. I step on the stupid frog. We're not friends." Natsumi corrected. "I stop his invasion plans. I'm a warrior. The planet's defender. Not a friend."

"Yeah! You tell him, Natsumi. You're Pekopon's defender and a warrior of this planet. I'm proud to face you." Giroro clapped.

Natsumi glanced at him. "Well, I mean Giroro's my friend. But Giroro's cool. He's different than the other aliens."

Giroro blushed. "I'm cool? I'm different?"

"Yeah, he's got potatoes." Natsumi replied.

"What." Haru was so confused.

"...Is that all?" Giroro asked.

"I'm joking. Giroro's helped me a lot of times, so he's just kind of grown on me as a friend. He's nicer than the other aliens too. He actually listens. But I'm not friends with Giroro because he's an alien or I'm into the occult. I like Giroro as a person." Natsumi pointed out to her father, not wanting to be associated with an occult fan.

Giroro's eyes sparkled. _She said she liked me as a person!_ "Yeah! And I like your daughter as a person! I mean, Natsumi's super cool, she's a good foe and she's super pretty I mean. You've got a very respectable daughter and I will be completely respectful and you are a fine father and I...I gotta go." Giroro was messing up in front of Haru.

Haru was so confused. "I feel like this is the Momoka incident all over again."

"Our children are...Very unique in their partners." Aki agreed.

Haru still didn't manage to get that Momoka or Giroro were in love with his children and that both were trying to impress him. He just shook his head not getting it at all.

Giroro meanwhile hid from Natsumi for a moment. He'd sit by her again soon.

Keroro, Kululu and Tamama had unfortunately seen his many disasters. As always.

"You're so lovesick." Keroro teased.

"Ku, ku, ku. That was absolutely pathetic. But the chopstick mess is going in the Giroro humiliates himself scrap book. I'm just surprised you got the idea from yourself and or Garuru instead of me or Keroro tricking you." Kululu was laughing on the floor with a camera.

Giroro growled. "For your information, I wouldn't screw myself over. Garuru was the one who gave me the romance advice." He cried a little inside. Perhaps his brother was as much of a fool as he was.

"Still you were stupid enough to take it." Tamama pointed out. "You're proof that lovesickness doesn't make you dumb, it's just how you carry yourself. After all I'm lovesick and I-"

"You're also stupid. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu pointed out. "I manage to sell you all sorts of dumb things to get rid of Mois that don't work."

"Wait, they don't work?" Tamama asked in shock. "No wonder she still comes around! You tricked me!"

"If you had a brain you would have realized if I had an invention to keep Mois out of somewhere I would have used it long ago." A tear slid down Kululu's cheek. "However I am forever doomed. And apparently you were too dumb to realize that."

Tamama was about to attack Kululu while Giroro was about to start shooting all of them, but Keroro cut him off.

"So...Are you ever going to tell Master Natsumi? That you like her I mean." Keroro asked. "I mean, isn't it getting time? You won't get anywhere if you don't tell her."

Giroro blushed. "I- I can't...And I mean, I don't! I don't like the enemy! Stop saying that. I'm not in love with her." He blushed and stormed off, forgetting he was going to attack anyone.

And they were safe another day.

* * *

Fuyuki watched his father and sister talk as he leaned against a wall with Keroro by his side. Fuyuki sighed after a moment, his facial expressions showing that he was truly content.

Keroro waited patiently for Fuyuki to speak. He didn't need to ramble about unnecessary things.

"I'm happy that you'll be staying on Earth for a super long time." Fuyuki confessed.

"Me too." Keroro agreed.

"I'm happy you're meeting my dad. You meeting my dad was something that only happened in dreams to me. I never thought it would really happen, but I'm glad it did." Fuyuki smiled. "I'm so glad. I mean I always wanted my two favorite people to meet!" He scooted closer. "Do you like him?"

Keroro winced at the two favorite people comment hoping that Momoka hadn't heard. He'd be gone if he was her competition. Fuyuki really had to appreciate his friendship with her better. "Y-yeah. Your dad is fine."

 _How can he be your favorite person when you never talked about him though? I mean you spend more time with Natsumi and Admiral Mama. Why aren't they your favorite?_ Had Haru been visiting a lot before the frogs had come. Those thoughts still drifted in his head.

Perhaps he just didn't understand it. He had always been gifted with a family that had always been together. Although sometimes his father was harsh, at least he saw him regularly.

"Yay!" Fuyuki hugged him. "I'm glad you're in my life, sarge." Fuyuki said again. "I know for sure that you and I and our friendship is going to last forever." It was a sacred promise to him.

Keroro smiled back.

Haru looked over at his son talking to his keronian friend, having heard Fuyuki's promise that he believed to be sacred. He moved over to the two a little worried for his son. "Fuyuki...Isn't that a little...Harmful?" He reminded.

"What do you mean?" Fuyuki asked.

"It's an unrealistic promise and I don't want you to get hurt. Don't get so attached to forever. I...I don't want you to be sad when things don't go your way." Haru told him.

"Sarge's and my friendship can't be ruined by anything though. It's true friendship." Fuyuki frowned.

"Yes, but someday the keronians need to go home to their own families." Haru reminded. "Focus on the happiness of now and not focusing on a far off forever that might not exist. After all, you want to be able to let them go so they can go home to their fathers as well." Haru reminded.

Fuyuki crossed his arms. He didn't want to act childish or say he didn't like that since his father was making a good point.

"I'm perfectly happy on Pekopon..." Keroro didn't really help the situation.

Haru shook his head. He wasn't helping.

"Well then..." Fuyuki thought about it after a moment. "If DK66 calls the sarge back home to Keron, I'll just go with him. Our friendship is a friendship that will last forever after all. And I always did want to go to space." He smiled. He really did intend to have a friendship with Keroro forever.

 _I...I want to be with you forever, Fuyuki. But Haru's right that you have a life here. It would be cruel to take you away from your family and Momoka. I have a life on Keron too._ Keroro thought to himself. Why couldn't Fuyuki just focus on the now like he was? Live in the present.

Tamama pouted and glared at Fuyuki as he listened to his and Keroro's conversation. He sighed. "Maybe the real love rival I have to worry about is Fukki. He's digging his claws into my man."

"No...Nah...Fuyuki and Keroro? No..." Momoka just shook her head. She just couldn't picture it.

"He is closer to Mr. Sergeant than any other male though." Tamama pointed out. "That woman's the closest girl to Mr. Sergeant. Fukki's the closest guy. I'm not even in the equation!"

Momoka frowned. "Hey, I'm pretty irritated too that I wasn't in his three favorite people. Let's go over there and remind them we exist."

"How?" Tamama asked.

"The best way how." Momoka snapped her fingers. Paul came in through the open door in a black suit with a bunch of Nishizawa guards.

"We have the ice cream and balloon animals." Paul told her.

"Good job." Momoka nodded.

Nobody even batted an eyelash except Haru. "What...What is happening? Did a bunch of army guys just jump into our house? Why are they carrying balloons? Why are they carrying weapons? Why is nobody freaking out?"

"Oh honey, they're just the Nishizawa guards. This happens daily now." Aki waved her hand. "I didn't even notice them."

"But they were so loud!" Haru was just hectic.

"They're ice cream guns and balloon guns." Momoka explained as if that made the situation better. "This guard is trained in balloon animals. An alien. Stat!"

Haru just had his mouth open in shock at this weirdness as they went out the door just as quickly as they had arrived and the helicopters took them away.

Momoka smiled with the ice cream and balloons.

"Do you ever consider that maybe they'd remember us and pay more attention to us if we weren't so over the top and tried to seduce them like...normally?" Tamama asked.

"Nah." Momoka shrugged. "Presents are sure to work. And even if they don't, Fuyuki will smile!" She grinned. That was enough for her.

Tamama and Momoka walked over to Keroro and Fuyuki carrying a balloon in one hand and an ice cream cone in another. Tamama's ice cream cone had a red heart in sprinkles and the balloon had a gundam model on it and the words 'Be mine'. Momoka's ice cream cone was shaped like an alien along with her balloon.

"Here you go, Fuyuki." Momoka smiled. "I heard you talking with Keroro. I just wanted to give you a gift for inviting me. I hope we can be friends forever and together forever."

"You don't need to hope for something like that, Nishizawa." Fuyuki smiled. "Of course you'll always be my friend." He took the balloon and ice cream. "This is really cool! You're really great."

Keroro took his respective balloon and ice cream too. He didn't even notice the heart. "Oooh private! You're the best! You always know just what to give me!"

Tamama just looked at Momoka and groaned. They were absolutely the densest people he had ever met.

"Sometimes I wonder if it's a Hinata thing that's somehow passed onto Keroro due to proximity." Momoka decided. "The denseness I mean."

"Knowing Fukki's sister, I wouldn't be surprised." Tamama deadpanned. There were never anyone as dense as those three- Keroro, Fuyuki and Natsumi were at the top of the dense list.

Fuyuki and Keroro didn't even know what they were talking about. They just smiled and licked their ice cream.

* * *

Fuyuki continued laughing and smiling, mostly with Momoka and Keroro. Haru had given up trying to convince his son that forever wasn't realistic.

"You tried your best, but optimistic brats just always believe in abstract terms like forever." Kululu was watching him laugh and started to finally speak to Haru.

Haru was surprised that the yellow keronian was talking to him. He had been warned by literally everyone in his family that this alien was the worst and that Kululu was a jerk and a creep. "You talking to me…?"

"Might as well be. I was just agreeing that forever isn't realistic. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu shrugged. His laugh sent shivers down Haru's shoulders.

"How can I get Fuyuki to realize that though?" Haru sighed. He just wanted the best for his son.

"You don't really have anything to worry about though about Keroro. Likely we really will be on the planet for quite some time. It's just a fact." Kululu shrugged. "It'll take the Keron government a while for them to decide Keroro's incompetent and that this invasion isn't going anywhere. That it isn't a realistic goal and that they've gotten bored of it. Ku, ku, ku." He sighed in irritation. "I hate how fickle they are. But they'll get bored by this endless invasion eventually. But who knows how long that will be? So we'll be here a good long while."

 _Is he reassuring me?_ Haru wondered. Maybe he wasn't so bad. He was just about to thank Kululu or make conversation with him but then Kululu turned away from him completely to talk to someone else.

Apparently Kululu also got easily bored. And this conversation topic had just been a way to bridge into a different conversation. Haru was just a stepping stone and he had no actual interest in conversing with him.

"So with that in mind that we're all stuck here on Pekopon for a while until the Keron government eventually decides to jerk us around and bring us back home, what are you going to do? You have nothing to do with the Keron government?" Kululu was talking to Angol Mois, the blonde girl by his side.

Angol Mois shrugged.

"I mean are you going to stay? You going to stay on Pekopon to help Keroro out or do you have like important angolian stuff to do?" Kululu asked rather curiously.

"I don't really know. I'm in the clear for my duty at the current moment...I mean after that asteroid came to the planet and I got to destroy it, I was fulfilled in some way. Doesn't mean I still don't want to destroy this place but I'm guessing I'll have to wait." Angol Mois sighed.

Kululu pat her on the back like he related. "You'll get to destroy it eventually."

"Thanks! But ever since I woke up from that nap in my Angol Stone things have been renogitated. So I'm free to do whatever I want." Angol Mois smiled.

"So then...What is it you want to do?" Kululu asked. "How long are you planning to stay before you go home since you're obviously not as trapped as we are?" He sipped at his cup of water, avoiding eye contact as if he wasn't that interested in her answer. Clearly though if he was asking he was digging for information.

"Hmmm...I'm not sure yet. Haven't decided. Maybe as long as our pekoponian friends live? I mean that won't be too long and you know what I can do after the end of that..." She grinned to herself an almost evil smirk. She was clutching at a cell phone.

"Ku, ku, ku. Should have known." Kululu grinned. He nodded at Angol Mois but then thought for a moment, re-examining what she had said. "Hey, Mois."

"Yes?" Angol Mois asked.

"Do you ever find it….Odd?" Kululu finally put his thoughts in words.

She tilted her head.

"How short this planet's species lifespans are? I mean the primarily creature's- pekoponians' lifespan are only a max of 80 or 90 years. You're right that it won't be too long until they're all dead, and it's just...Odd considering the fact that literally everywhere else in the universe people have around a 40,000 year lifespan." Kululu pointed out.

"I don't have a 40,000 year lifespan, Kululu." Mois pointed out. "Your lifespans are all short to me."

Kululu frowned. "I know you can live for billions and billions of years. It's super cool and I am jealous. I know."

Angol Mois grinned.

"But like...I never really thought about it before, but it's really odd. It's the primary reason why Pekoponians aren't as advanced as other species because of their short lifespan. But what makes everything on this planet's lifespan so short? Is there some sort of poison?" Kululu asked mostly just hypothesizing and rambling to himself. "Did you ever wonder what was happening to the pekoponians?"

Haru hadn't been listening when Kululu ditched him, but he immediately started listening once the conversation got interesting. He scooted closer, although he had been warned about proximity with Kululu.

Kululu noticed this and glanced at him.

"Sorry, sorry." Haru apologized. "It's just...I was an occult researcher and was looking for mysteries and aliens all my life. And just aliens talking and seeing you...Gahhh! You're all so cool!" His eyes sparkled as he just looked at them like they were super cool. It wasn't like he was even fully listening. His eyes were just sparkling in that weird occult way Fuyuki got.

Kululu sighed. _He's obnoxious. Can't he tell I was in the middle of a conversation?_ He went back to trying to talk to Mois. "Anyway..."

"And wow, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that aliens would need glasses...That's so cool. You're just like us in a way." Haru's eyes sparkled.

"Hey, Haru was it? Do you want to see my lab later. I have a lot of…. _Experiments_ I could show you?" Kululu said in a much too sinister voice. It was almost like he was implying Haru would be the experiment.

"Uhhh I'd like too but I've already heard five people warn me against that." Haru laughed nervously. "They said your lab was a place of darkness and misery and also crying children."

"If you know that much about me, why don't you buzz off?" Kululu asked. "Ku, ku, ku...Anyway..."

"It's just aliens are so cool, you know?" Haru continued talking.

Kululu cleared his throat to gather Mois's attention and completely ignored Haru. "Eyes over here. Just ignore him."

Angol Mois nodded. She was having another conversation after all. "I do find it odd, Kululu." She agreed. "I never really thought about it, because honestly..." She looked guilty.

"You didn't care about a species that is dead in your mind? Ku, ku, ku." Kululu suggested.

"Yeah." Angol Mois agreed. "But I'm sure there's a lot of chemical based theories for why their bodies and lifespans are different than yours and the rest of the universes. For example,-" She was about to get into chemistry.

Kululu was so happy that he had managed to ignore Haru and now they were in an important and intellectually stimulating conversation about bodies and chemicals. This was a much better conversation to have than about how cool keronians were.

"Hey wait, I have a question about alien things!" Haru cut Mois off, loudly talking before she could answer. "Like I want to know about your foods. Is it like the foods here?" He asked. "And is it a keronian thing to put curry on everything?" He pointed to Kululu's food.

Kululu sighed. Haru had managed to be loud enough and obnoxious enough to garner attention. _Must be taking lessons from Keroro._

"He just likes curry." Angol Mois replied. "Anyway about the theories-"

"And what sort of alien are you, Miss? Are you a friend of my daughter's and son's too?" Haru asked. "Oooh what kind of food do you have on your planet? Also curry? Or do female keronians just take human form?"

Kululu frowned. _Wait a minute...It's hard to ignore him because he's only started talking when we do. Is...Is he trying to change the subject?_ That was odd. And although Haru was trying to be subtle it was very obvious to Kululu.

Kululu turned to Haru. "What's your job?" He asked. Something about Haru was fishy and he needed to know why. Why had Haru tried to change the subject?  
He needed to gather more information.

"Oh." Haru smiled, happy to talk to Kululu about himself. "I'm a scholar. A researcher. I explore mysterious locations and write down my findings. Kind of like what Fuyuki does on his blog."

"A scholar, huh?" Keroro had heard Haru across the room. He wasn't spending time talking to Fuyuki now and was kind of listening to Haru instead. He wanted to give Fuyuki some time to mingle with Momoka after all. He had clued in as soon as Fuyuki's name had been mentioned. "I wonder if Fuyuki decided to be into the occult because of you."

Haru smiled. "That would be every father's dreams to have his son follow in his footsteps….Or daughter. Natsumi's always welcome into the occult path."

"NO THANKS! I'M NOT A NERD!" Natsumi shouted.

"Nice one." Giroro high fived Natsumi.

"Yeah!" Natsumi grinned.

"If you're a scholar..." Kululu finally started to speak again to Haru.

Haru nodded, excited for what Kululu would say. If he had any more questions.

"Then aren't you supposed to be smart?" Kululu said jerkily. "Ku, ku, ku. Go away. You know you aren't wanted here."

Haru frowned. Keroro helped him away from Kululu. "Sorry, he's always a jerk." Keroro apologized.

But Haru didn't listen to Keroro.

Kululu sighed seeing that Haru was finally going away. He turned to Mois. "We can continue our discussion now that that bother is gone. You were saying some of your theories on the matter."

"Yeah, there are various reasons that an entire planet's lifespan could be so low. Sickness for one, -" Angol Mois was cut off yet again. She sighed in annoyance as like a cat Haru got between them.

"Sorry, I forgot my glass." Haru reached between them, very obviously interrupting.

Kululu narrowed his eyes. It was the first time Haru had physically tried to stop them from talking by getting in between them. And he was not just going to twiddle his thumbs and be silent. There was no reason to be polite.

"You're trying to change the subject aren't you? You know something. Or don't want us talking about this particular subject. I've got to admit you're rather interesting for a pekoponian. What do you know that we don't? Or that you don't want us to know. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu straight up called him out. "Are you even a pekoponian?"

"I'm...I'm sorry?" Haru asked. "I was asking another food related question to your friend. I didn't hear you." He had a pen and paper out writing down answers as he badgered Mois about alien foods yet again.

 _He's pretending he didn't hear me._ Kululu realized.

"Do you like cooking?" Haru asked Mois.

"Ummm..I think Kululu wants to talk to you." Mois tried to point out. "But yes." She was so bad at not giving in and answering people.

Kululu sighed but continued watching Haru, narrowing his eyes at him. _Yep, definitely suspicious. I don't know why it took me so long to be suspicious about the whole cliché of 'missing father comes back to his family after leaving to pursue his own desires, pretends he's never been gone.'_

Kululu put his hand on Mois's tapping her and pointing over to the corner so they could move away from Haru to continue talking.

Mois nodded and sneaked away while Haru rambled. "Okay. Hopefully he doesn't interrupt this time."

"Something's really suspicious about him. But maybe he really is just an idiot who's self-centered around himself. I mean there's nothing suspicious about Keroro and he does the same when we're talking about literally anything of scientific importance. Ku." Kululu said in annoyance. "Now, the rest of your theories."

"So there's sickness, chemicals like a poison,-" Angol Mois didn't even have time to sigh. Haru was back and he was there to interrupt.

"Hey, hey." Haru greeted rather obnoxiously.

Kululu elected to just ignore him.

"And then there's,-" Mois tried to continue.

"Are you guys dating?" Haru asked.

For some reason that's what garnered a response from Kululu. "W-what? Why would you ask that of all things?" Kululu asked. "We're not-"

Haru didn't listen. "That's just so cool! I guess you're one example of out-of-species. I wonder what your kids would look like? Can cross-breeding even work between your two species? What are the different dating customs and barriers you've run into?" Haru asked just way too many questions.

Angol Mois was just bright red. Unfortunately she fell for the subject change way worse than Kululu did and got way more embarrassed than he did about any implication. "We're not! Me and Kululu aren't dating! I don't know where'd you get that idea and please stop asking these things and that's just so weird and I don't know what you're talking about." Angol Mois pleaded, her voice raising to be a little more loud.

"Mois..Mois, it's fine. Umm...You don't have to shout." Kululu sighed, knowing he should have probably known Mois would be more distracted by this change of subject than anything else. He also kind of didn't want her being so loud and getting everybody else's attention.

"Kululu's just a friend and a good pal! He's just a super good friend." Angol Mois just continuously shook her hands and waved her hands, her face bright red.

Kululu just sighed going silent. Sure, he might have been caught off guard but he wasn't reacting nearly as bad as Mois was. She just always got distracted from mainstream conversations by literally anything, especially topics that might be considered embarrassing to some.

"If you're looking for an out-of-species relationship, go ask your daughter questions." Kululu teased.

Haru's face went to full confusion. What did Kululu mean by that?

"I don't know why you're all embarrassed, but don't listen to Haru. He's just obviously trying to cause trouble." Kululu advised trying to calm Mois down. _Geez, Mois. You're really not helping being all panicky. Now he's going to think that subject will work._ Honestly he wasn't sure why she was so embarrassed and panicky. Maybe that was just the way Mois was.

Mois nodded taking Kululu's advice. Luckily, Kululu's words had managed to get Haru to leave as well.

"I apologize, but...Umm...I think I need to go check on my daughter." Haru looked like he was terrified to walk over and see Natsumi smooching some sort of alien.

"Ku, ku, ku. You go do that, you weirdo." Kululu was glad to finally be rid of him as Haru bolted, screaming Natsumi's name dramatically.

 _Got to make a mental note to learn more about him. He might act like an idiot, but there's definitely something he's hiding._ Kululu decided more focused on Haru than anything else at the moment.

He waited for Haru to be fully distracted and for him to be in the clear to check back with Keroro to see if he was thinking the same thing he was.

* * *

It took a while for the party to end. But when it did, eventually Aki forced the frogs to clean up after everybody as the humans went off to say good-bye to each other.

Keroro didn't seem to mind cleaning up, although Giroro and Tamama complained a little bit more than the others. Dororo bopped both of their heads to remind them to be polite.

"Captain." Kululu walked over to Keroro when the humans were no longer around and within ear-shot. "I saw that you were watching Haru and I talk at one point. Did you continue paying attention?" Kululu asked.

Keroro turned pale. "Which answer are you looking for...Yes or no? Which answer is the least painful?" He asked a little frightened.

"The truth." Kululu replied. "I'm just curious if you were listening to Haru."

Keroro hesitantly nodded. "It was kind of hard to not be listening. He certainly drew everybody's attention."

 _I know. That's exactly my point._ Kululu's lips curled in a smile. "Ku, ku, ku. Good. So you know what was going on. Did you notice what Haru was doing?" He was curious to see if his platoon captain had drawn the same conclusions that he had that Haru was trying to change the subject.

After all Kululu could only do so much on his own. Keroro was the captain and directed where the platoon went.

"Ummm..." Now Keroro was drawing a blank. "During the conversation?" _Man I hate quizzes!_

"Yes." Kululu nodded.

Keroro blinked blankly obviously confused. "Can I...Have more information? Which part of the conversation are you referring to?"

"All of it. All of what Haru said and did would draw you to this conclusion." Kululu knew Keroro was an idiot, but he still tried to prod some sort of response to Keroro. Perhaps Keroro would draw the same conclusions as him if he tried to remind and hint Keroro of Haru's actions?

Keroro blinked. Eventually he finally answered slowly as if he knew what Kululu was trying to say. "...Are you and Mois really dating?"

Kululu face palmed. This was not what he wanted Keroro to focus on in the conversation. He just made an annoyed sighing sound. "Captain, you're getting side-tracked-"

"I mean I guess I'm okay with it. I don't really have a choice do I? If she fully decided that that's what she wants I kind of have to support it...I mean I don't want to risk your anger." Keroro decided.

"I shouldn't have asked an idiot!" Kululu threw up his hands in defeat. He spun around to storm off that Keroro was focusing on the wrong thing. Before he left to ditch clean up he glared at Keroro though, deciding to just tell him.

"There's something more to Haru than meets the eye." He warned. "There's something looming in our future. I don't know what it is but this is no time to celebrate." Kululu's voice was heavy with how serious the subject matter was. He truly was warning Keroro. "This isn't the end. Something is going to happen, I feel it."

Keroro was momentarily caught off guard by how serious Kululu's voice was. He fell over briefly onto his butt in shock. "I...I don't understand." Keroro admitted. "Is this still about you and Mois dating? It has to be, right? Because that's what Haru was talking about? Is that the danger?"

"Augh!" Kululu made a sound of irritation at just how stupid Keroro was. "I'll only tell you this once, because once should be enough to get it through your dumb mind. We're not dating."

"Okay...That's good, because I was kind of lying about supporting you. I mean I'd only support it if I didn't have a choice." Keroro sighed in relief.

Kululu glared at him irritated that Keroro wasn't listening to him about Haru and was only focusing on what he wanted to focus on. "Come on, Mois. Let's go back to the lab."

Angol Mois nodded having finished her part of the clean up. She stood up and Kululu took her hand. He then turned around and gave a sinister grin to Keroro and walked away to the lab hand in hand with Mois.

 _Hey! He just did that to be a jerk to me!_ Keroro realized.

Still he stared at them go rather blankly. He still felt Kululu's warnings loom heavily in the air. And momentarily he wondered what he should be worrying about.

Should he be worried for the future? Should he be worried for a forever that might not exist with Fuyuki? Should he be worried about Haru? Or should he be worried about the one thing that could probably handle her own life- Mois and her growing relationship with Kululu?

 _I'm going to worry about Mois. After all, I wouldn't want to be in her shoes._ Keroro decided to worry about the one person he probably had no reason to worry about in this situation and imaginary problems that didn't exist.

He didn't know that he was making a mistake and focusing on the wrong thing.

* * *

 **Let's see things that were referencing. One of the last episodes with DK66 of course. The Garuru platoon arc was referenced as well. The last episode where Haru returns...Angol Mois was referencing volume 14 with the meteor that woke her up. Shigure was in episode 209**

 **Also for those who do not know, Garuru can not use chopsticks.**

 **I'm sorry if the chapter was too long! Tell me if it was but I wanted all the characters to have time to do things. If you had written this chapter how would you have split it up? Would you make it one chapter or two?**

 **Also as you know now this story will focus mostly on the Flyians a creature that the keronians have been hunting down who they suspect are hiding on Pekopon. Obviously the Keroro platoon will get involved in this.**

 **Please review.**


	2. Seeking Answers

**Sorry the first part of the chapter is just more set-up for the tone of the story.**

 **I tried to have some humor but this isn't the most humorous of stories I've written so I'm trying to put the humor in where I can.**

 **Also notes- Technically Fuyuki's not really a main character of this fic. Haru is, however I could not find the character button for Haru so I just put Fuyuki down. I mean Fuyuki is important in the story because he's Keroro's friend and Keroro's the main character but he's not as important as you might think. Just wanted to make that clear.**

* * *

 _Why are they so important?_ The young recruit from the colonel's meeting that had been climbing the ranks, name known as Agugu wondered.

After that siren had gone off when witnessing the pink pekoponian man the entire room had gone into a panic and had scrambled away. His first top secret meeting had ended in disarray and he still didn't really have the answers he sought.

Although he was younger than the rest and should have been humble with the luck he had run into- rising in the ranks so quickly managing to secure himself an internship under a general and a council position, he still valued the truth.

If the truth wasn't given to him, he'd curiously ask it for himself. And he didn't fully understand why these flyians were so important. Heck, he had never heard of them before this meeting.

 _I'm sure the Demon Sergeant will answer my questions._ Agugu thought to himself. He was much less scary than he had been rumored to be, rather kind and willing to explain things that Agugu didn't understand.

That could have been due to the fact that they shared the same skin tone though. There was a certain companionship of keronians who shared the same skin tone. Especially green keronians. Green was well known as the most popular and 'top' color on Keron, due to it being the same as their planet. It was seen as the original color and therefore the best.

Sure it was true that Agugu's green wasn't the elusive perfect green- a light shade like their planet's. But he did have a shade of green, slightly darker than that. Closer to the Demon Sergeant's than any other green keronian.

No wonder he found companionship in him.

 _There were all sorts of rumors that the Demon Sergeant was cold hearted, wrapped up in all sorts of government secrets._ Agugu recalled what he had heard in his previous field before he had transferred completely to strategics and the military.

At the time he had believed medical science was his passion- the field of doctors. But his cousin's had insisted that perhaps he'd have more fame and fortune fighting in the military like any keronian should do. He had relented and here he was.

It turned out they were right and he had managed to make quite a name for himself, being quite successful and raising in the ranks quickly.

Agugu approached the Demon Sergeant's place of primary residence in the headquarters- the colonel's office. Honestly he had heard that the Demon Sergeant had gotten rid of his own office and now kinda bummed around everybody else's making him hard to locate.

The door was open barely a creak. He could see light coming from the inside when he peered through with his eye. But the Demon Sergeant wasn't alone.

"So we're going to Pekopon, huh?" The Demon Sergeant said slowly.

The Colonel was looking over papers, shuffling them and organizing them after the Demon Sergeant sat on them and messed them up. He didn't look too amused about the fact that the Demon Sergeant was sitting on his papers.

"Yes. What of it?" The Demon Sergeant asked.

"Nothing it's just...The flies aren't the only thing on that planet, you know." The Demon Sergeant pointed out.

The colonel stopped for a moment and glanced up at him. "Did you already have a talk with your wife? I thought she was already prepared."

"She says she is, every time. But..." The Demon Sergeant's hand shook a little. "She never is. I think she's started...Changing because of all this."

Agugu leaned forward, not quite understanding what they were talking about. _What else is on Pekopon?_ Were they discussing some plan?

Or had he just discovered some elusive affair? What secret meeting was he discovering?

The door creaked open. Agugu covered his mouth realizing he had pressed his weight on it too much and been discovered.

"It's that new recruit. What was it...Was he an intern or something?" The colonel asked. Agugu could barely see his face but he could hear the anger in his voice.

He had been eaves dropping after all.

"I'm sorry, I- I was looking for the Sergeant and I.." Agugu tried to mumble.

"It's all right." The Demon Sergeant preened his mustache and smiled.

"It's not all right! What are you talking about? Keronian soldiers shouldn't be rats listening to secrets meetings they don't have authorization for. They should be punished, not reassured." The colonel pointed out and stood up.

Agugu tried not to back away. In the military you had to take what was coming to you, not run for your own life.

The Demon Sergeant put his hand on the colonel's shoulder and shook his head. "This one's name is Agugu."

"So?" The colonel asked.

"The reason he's been granted clearance to such secret meetings and rising in the ranks so quickly is because his cousin's the emperor. I doubt the emperor would take kindly if he got injured or were punished. Heck, you might be stripped off a job!" The Demon Sergeant pointed out.

The colonel nodded. He was ashamed that he had been less informed.

"I understand that you might think the situation is nepotism and all. But I don't want special treatment. I just came here to ask a question." Agugu said. "I want my achievements to be my own, not my cousin's. He might be trying to help me but I would not like to be affiliated with him for now."

"You might change your mind if the emperor ends up dying, kid." The colonel reminded. "After all, he has no heirs as of this moment, and a cousin is part of the blood line."

Agugu ignored him. He didn't want to hear about that. He didn't have that ambition right now. All he wanted to know about was the flies.

"I...I didn't mean to interrupt anything secret and I'm so so sorry. All I wanted was to ask more about the flyians." Agugu pleaded.

"He's a skittish kid, isn't he?" The demon sergeant asked. The colonel gave a nod.

Agugu tried not to shrink from two well known and heroic keronians in the same room with him. "I just desired more information. I was curious. I'm sorry if I bothered you."

The Demon Sergeant laughed. He slapped Agugu's back, the youthful curiosity seeming to win him over. "I like you, kid. Trying to go to the bosses to seek answers? Brave."

"At least he wasn't egotistical enough to think he could get the answers on his own." The colonel slunk into his chair and sat in it. "And tried to hack our databases." He looked annoyed for a moment.

Agugu decided not to ask. He believed he already knew what they were referring to. _I remember a while back some young kid hacked the military with stolen tech to show off. I think I heard rumors that although punished he was given a new recruit position? Probably because of his intelligence._ He briefly wondered why someone of that caliber and intellect hadn't gotten anything higher than new recruit but it was just a rumor. Might not even be true.

"Anyway..." The Demon Sergeant went to sit on more of the colonel's papers which just made the Colonel look annoyed.

"Oh come on!" He threw his hands up.

"I'll tell you about the story of the flyians. What I know of them.' The Demon sergeant offered.

Agugu stood at attention instead of childishly sitting on the floor to listen to the story.

"As we told you there were three species with amazing power that ate each other. Viper ate keronians, keronians ate flyians and Flyians ate deceased vipers. It was a ritual that other alien species were sure to not understand and labeled as 'barbaric' due to the flyians sentience. But it's not like we wanted to be eaten by Vipers either!" The Demon Sergeant pointed out.

"Why didn't we just negotiate to stop the cycle then?" Agugu asked. "If we didn't want to be eaten but we had to eat to live, just like them?"

"Ah...That's because the flyians are how we become a legend. The greatest invading species of all time. It's how Keron became a great civilization. After all the Vipers might have mediocre power- having those guns in their arms, and we had power, but the flyians, each individual fly has power that you can get from eating them. It helps you break your full potential and make a new one." The Demon Sergeant explained.

"They're a mythical legendary creature." The colonel read a newspaper instead of looking at his friend.

"The flyians could give amazing power to whoever they inhabited. But the only being that could truly unlock full power from them was us, who could digest them properly and gain mythical power from the creatures." The Demon Sergeant explained. "This made them much more powerful than any other species, the Viper with their brute force and gun hands. Us with our own power, and anything else."

"If we were all so powerful though and they were like the extreme of power-" Agugu spoke up. "Shouldn't we have been able to keep each other in check? Like predator and prey? There's never too much of each." He was silent for a moment again. "And if they were so powerful how did we even catch them to eat them?" It didn't make sense.

He understood the barbaric cycle of predator and prey, the circle that they would have been trapped in in that age, but the flyians sounded much more powerful than the keronians. How could the keronians even catch any of them? After all they had fled them now and the keronians couldn't locate them.

"We had our own power during that age." The Demon Sergeant explained. "One even more powerful than those flies. Because of it we were able to skyrocket ourselves to a new age and civilization. Grow as invaders."

Agugu nodded. Obviously they no longer had that power though. He wondered if the Demon Sergeant even knew that power since he was being so vague about it, almost like he didn't have the answers.

"The Vipers could no longer eat us because we were so powerful. They turned to other pursuits and grew out of eating us. Started fighting us instead." The Demon Sergeant nodded. "It was the good life. However we didn't think for the future. We didn't realize that we wouldn't be able to advance or progress as a civilization without the flies."

"In the end keronians got greedy and hunted the flyians to near extinction." The Colonel put his newspaper down. "The flyians became terrified that their population was dwindling and fled the solar system. They've been hiding ever since and we've been desperately searching for them knowing we can't progress to a greater species without them."

"So ever since, Keron won't rise any higher?" Agugu restated.

"And our hunger for the power the flyians would grant us rose. Any keronian who so much as starts to hear about such power starts salivating eventually. It's just in our nature to want them." The Demon Sergeant looked sad.

"We searched for hundreds of thousands of years. But there was nothing. Hope was the only thing that kept us going." The Demon Sergeant continued his story his body going limp. "It almost seemed like fate that they were kept out of our hands when we tried so hard...Like somebody was taunting us."

The Colonel stood up, seeing that the Demon Sergeant was getting rather sad from his own story. "One day that changed though." The Colonel finally spoke. "One of our men was sent down to a mysterious planet called Pekopon. I believe it was...a few hundred pekoponian years ago? Give or take some years." He shrugged.

Agugu's eyes widened. So this was how Pekopon was brought into the story.

"It was just a recon mission to tell us if the planet was good for invading. He was a well known recon agent. He would blend in with the wild life. I believe he told me that during the time he pretended to be some sort of species called 'kappa'. Had some sort of plate on his head or something." The Colonel explained.

The Demon Sergeant brightened up. "Oh yeah! I remember him! He was real disappointed when he was called back home. Apparently he had made friends with some little girl that was thrown in...jail or something? For defending him. I don't know what that was about. Eventually he went back for her to save her and help her escape, but we had to pull him back. Can't have our keronians get too invested in alien planets after all."

The colonel silenced him with a wave of his hand. "Anyway, that keronian had known about the flyians and had sensed traces of them on Pekopon. He deduced after years of research that they had fled to the planet of Pekopon."

"And that was how our plan to reclaim the flyians started turning in motion!" The Demon Sergeant announced.

"...The plan?" Agugu asked. He understood more about where the flyians had come from and why they were so important but only that meeting that he had sat in on had any sort of plan now that they had more concrete evidence on the flyians being around. "What's the plan?"

The Demon Sergeant smiled and pat Agugu on the head. "...That's a story for another day."

* * *

It was the next day after the party. The early morning hours of 10 o'clock. When normal people would be up.

Kululu was not up. He was still in bed, playing on his laptop. Just like any creature of the night would be doing.

 _Okay….I think my online auction is all set up now._ His prices were pretty decent. After all, he wanted to get rid of the things. He wanted them to be purchased.

He had a snazzy page and everything. And he had wired things up that as soon as the objects were purchased his technology would send it away to the buyer.

Kululu looked at his on-line page with a decent amount of satisfaction. Guns, weaponry, even some teddy bears and pictures of Natsumi. All of them were beautiful items to auction off.

And none of them were his. That was the pure beauty of it.

 _Ah~. I love auctioning off Giroro's precious things. What a beautiful way to spend a Saturday morning._ Kululu thought to himself in absolutely horrible glee.

He couldn't wait until Giroro found out and tried to chase down his teleporters only to realize his stuff was already gone. The true beautiful moment of a jerky prank was when someone realized that they had been jerked around.

There was no point to being a jerk after all if he got no recognition for it. If they never realized something horrible had happened it was just boring. And Kululu hated boring things.

 _Hmmm...I feel like I should probably be doing something else._ Kululu yawned and stretched, loading up some computer games instead of doing anything of importance.

He knew he had decided to do a little more investigating of Haru, Natsumi and Fuyuki's 'supposedly' perfect father yesterday, but too be completely honest…. _I'm too lazy to be doing work right now. I'll investigate that dude later._

Sure Haru was a mystery, but he didn't want to become too obsessed with some boring pink haired dude. Best to wait it out until Keroro paid him for something he was going to do anyway. That was the best way to look for information he already wanted.

It wasn't like anything that important was actually linked to Haru. Kululu just had some bizarre theory that perhaps Haru was hiding something and was suspicious. He had no actual proof about it yet. Nothing else to back up his claim. So there was no point in hurriedly trying to look into the information at the current moment.

Right now it was computer game time. And he had promised Saburo he'd play some sort of online MMO with him and join the guild that Saburo had crafted for months.

 _Can't wait to usurp him, double-cross him and completely ruin his game. Ku, ku, ku._ Kululu had planned out everything to ruin this MMO.

He had to be a jerk to everyone after all. Even his best friend. He couldn't wait for Saburo to just gasp and look at shock at him and send a text like 'Man. Man, why? I spent real life money on this.' and then Kululu would mock him for being a nerd.

Kululu started loading the MMO page.

"Please wait just a moment. World of Zombie Nurses VS giant robots is loading." Kululu tried not to make a disgusted sound at the loading screen of cute anime nurses battling it out with giant weapons against giant robots.

Before the loading screen could finish though, the screen blinked to gray.

 _Ring! Ring! Ring!_

Kululu hurriedly clicked one of the bottom windows. There was only one program that had the authority to shut down the other tabs- that he had given explicit permission had more right than the other programs.

Any calls from the Keron government. It was rare for Keron to call him and not Keroro. Either it meant he was in trouble, or Keroro was in trouble. And he sure as heck wanted to be there to hear if Keroro was in trouble.

It was a gamble to answer but he really wanted Keroro to be in trouble. That and if he didn't answer he really would be in trouble. The Keron Military didn't take lightly to being kept on the line waiting. And it could be important.

Kululu hurriedly made sure the sound was on a little better so he could actually hear. Only notification sounds had been on since he didn't want to hear that absolutely terrible soundtrack of the MMO he had been sent.

"Sergeant Major Kululu? Have you finally answered?" It was the colonel.

Kululu paled realizing that if the colonel was calling him, this really was serious business. He hadn't turned his webcam on and briefly entertained the idea that he could pretend he wasn't there.

 _Would it really be so bad if I just kind of….turned off the computer and went back to bed? Shouldn't the colonel be calling Keroro anyway? He is the one in charge of the Pekopon invasion._

He couldn't deny that he was curious why the colonel was calling him, but he kind of wanted Keroro to take the call and do his job. He didn't want to talk to the colonel right now.

"Would the computer be on if he wasn't there?" It was Keroro's father. "I mean I can't see him, but perhaps his webcam isn't on. Kululu, ol pal! Turn your webcam on! It's easy. I was able to get a young'in to teach me how to do it."

Kululu sighed. He was probably caught. Still it was even more odd that Keroro's father was there calling him instead of Keroro. _Why aren't they calling the Sergeant? What do they need from me?_

He reminded himself he was the Sergeant Major. He did outrank Keroro. Keroro just was the leader of the mission so he had the orders. Perhaps they were finally giving Kululu some respect.

Maybe Kululu wasn't in as much trouble as he thought. It wasn't like Garuru was calling him up to yell at him how he had found Giroro's stuff on an online auction.

Kululu turned the webcam on and hurriedly turned towards the wall so he was leaning against it. They didn't need to see the rest of his lab. Just his boring gray wall.

"Whaddya want?" Kululu asked rudely.

The Demon Sergeant looked a little caught off guard that Kululu was so rude. Like he had somehow forgotten that since their last meeting.

Kululu noticed a younger keronian in the background, dark green kind of peering over the two shoulders. Probably some boring intern.

 _I wonder why Keron is calling. We did just deal with DK66 a month ago. Do they want to pull us away from the invasion again?_ Kululu wondered. He gripped his laptop. They probably would have more luck talking to him about the invasion than Keroro.

"Sergeant Major Kululu, it is nice to see you. I hope you are in good health." The colonel said politely.

Kululu doubted he meant any of it. Still his voice was way too loud and grating. He brought a finger to his lips. "Shhh." He hushed. "It's still morning on Pekopon right now. People are sleeping. Don't be loud."

"Are data indicates that it is no longer the early morning hours so why do we need to be quiet?" The Demon sergeant asked a question that he knew he wouldn't get an answer to. He sighed knowing Kululu probably was just being rude.

The colonel raised his hand to dismiss the Demon Sergeant. He nodded, abiding by Kululu's request. "We have come into contact with you to give you orders for a new mission we want the Keroro Platoon to do."

 _Ah! So I'm not in trouble._ Kululu realized. Still, he felt himself smirk that he was getting the mission orders and not Keroro. So they knew he was more competent.

A few pictures and screenshots flew on the screen. They were all of Haru Hinata.

Kululu furrowed his brow. _They mystery grows deeper._

"We need you to capture this man. I believe Sergeant Keroro said he was an admiral?" The colonel asked.

"His name is Haru Hinata." Kululu corrected.

"Our new orders for the Keroro Platoon is to capture the pekoponian known as Haru Hinata. Capture him and question him on his exposure to aliens." The colonel ordered.

Kululu listened closely. He wasn't all that surprised that Haru had some sort of connection to aliens or there was something mysterious about him that the Keron government wanted to know about him. After all he had been greatly suspicious and he had been wondering about him. What he did want to know was what mystery Haru was holding though.

He was perplexed by it that he didn't know. He needed the answers. He didn't care if nobody else had the answers, as long as he knew. He was the guy who knew everybody's secrets after all. Information was his power.

"Why?" Kululu wasn't the type to just follow orders blindly. He always needed a reason. "What am I looking for? Why's this guy so suspicious? Ku, ku-" He stopped himself from laughing. Possibly an inappropriate time to laugh.

"You do not need to know that. A keronian soldier needs only to follow orders, not to know why. Just give the orders to the rest of the Keroro Platoon." The colonel ordered.

Kululu felt his fists tighten in anger. He wasn't an average keronian soldier though. He was a genius. He was sergeant major Kululu. He deserved to know. "Come on. How can I know what to ask him for if I don't know what I'm looking for?" Kululu asked a bit louder with some hint of desperation in his voice.

The colonel raised a brow. Desperation was not a look he saw on Kululu often. It did not help prove Kululu was the most reliable.

"That information is not yours to have." The colonel said in a calm and steady voice.

"Act more mature. You're not a baby." The Demon Sergeant crossed his arms.

"Like your son? I'd be so proud as a father to know my son cried at a super computer and somehow magically got his way. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu crossed his arms. "Listen, I'm smart enough to handle this information that you're hiding about Haru. I don't have any feelings of friendship or attachment to anyone unlike the rest of my platoon here." Kululu tried to negotiate for the information.

"We know. But that doesn't make you have the authorization levels for information that is unneeded." The colonel reminded.

The Demon Sergeant just sighed at that reminder about Keroro and the super computer.

"I'm not the type of person who's stupid enough to follow orders for no reason. I'm different from the average Keronian!" Kululu argued. Now that they were purposefully keeping him in the dark he felt insulted.

He knew he needed that information about Haru more than anything now. This wasn't about Haru being obnoxious at a party. This was about an insult to him.

"You're supposed to be someone who follows orders. That's why you're part of the keronian military. If you want to reclaim your old rank you'll have to be exactly the type of person that you're speaking of. Someone who follows orders without asking questions." The colonel advised speaking of Kululu's old rank as major.

"You're part of the Keronian military, sergeant Major. And a good military man doesn't ask questions." Keroro's father reminded.

"Remember! Every part of the keronian military is an asset! Even the littlest of gears!" Agugu finally spoke up, optimistically in the background. Hoping to ease things over.

The Demon Sergeant and the colonel nodded in agreement.

 _So I'm just a little gear? Just an asset, huh? Not someone smart enough to tell important information too?_ Kululu felt anger boil in his veins and felt majorly insulted. He had half a mind to tell the colonel to go screw himself and do his own dirty work but he knew that was a stupid way of dealing with things. A Giroro like way.

No, Kululu kept his anger more tucked inside his heart, burning as grudges until he ruined and destroyed lives making someone regret the day they wronged him. He'd get that information about Haru on his own if they wouldn't give it to him themselves.

Still in the moment, Kululu was mad and insulted. He didn't give them a response that he'd relay the information to his platoon mates. Instead he slammed his laptop shut loudly in a momentary flash of anger.

He didn't need to finish the conversation or say any good-byes or be respectful. Not if they wouldn't treat him with that same respect he deserved.

"I'm not a child. What do they think I am? An annoying brat? I'm an asset to the military and they need to realize that. They should learn to stay on my good side. I'm not a freakin child to be kept in the dark!" Kululu was mumbling angrily to himself. Screw being quiet. He was fuming.

"H-huh...W-what…?" There was a groggy yawn as the tired girl next to him woke up.

Kululu sighed. _Crap. Forgot to be quiet._ "Did I wake you?" He calmed down momentarily to try to be a little quieter. Mois really needed to be getting more sleep or else she'd fall asleep while doing work. And he really didn't want to be stranded and do all the paperwork himself.

"Y-yeah. But it's all right. Are you okay?" Angol Mois still sounded half asleep. She mostly sounded worried at the shouting she had heard. Rubbing her eyes she tried to sit up.

"Yeah I'm fine. Just had some work sent to me from the keron military. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu explained.

"Oh, what kind of work?" Angol Mois asked, trying to sound interested but in reality super tired. It was very easy to see.

"Nothing important. You, go back to sleep." Kululu ordered.

Angol Mois didn't protest. "Mmkay. Nightie nightie." She then literally conked out right there, holding a pillow like it was a plushy.

Kululu awkwardly looked down at her and side-stepped away.

 _I...I guess I'm not going to get any work done here. She falls asleep so quickly._ Kululu shook his head. He didn't really know how she'd feel about the fact that the keron government had ordered the platoon to capture Haru anyway.

Best not to get her involved just as a precautionary measure if the pekoponians ever asked her what was going on. Not that he didn't trust her but, she had something he called 'morals' an odd term that he didn't quite understand.

He left the lab, leaving Mois to get some rest.

* * *

"So that's why I think that our latest invasion plan should be replacing all the water in squirt guns with something that smells slightly of urine, but is in fact still water. It will cause the pekoponians such emotional distress that we'll be easily able to invade." Keroro directed his platoon on a white board.

Kululu walked in.

"You're late! The invasion meeting was at 9." Giroro pointed out.

"Pssh. Who wakes up at 9?" Kululu waved his hand. "Ku, ku, ku. Certainly not me."

"To be fair you didn't invite everyone to this meeting anyway." Dororo reminded Keroro so that Keroro wouldn't be too mad at Kululu. "For example I never got the news that our meetings were changed to 9 am. Likely Lady Mois didn't either."

Tamama was dancing in victory about one annoyance being gone. "It could have been a great day but then Kululu showed up." He sighed.

Giroro pat his back. He understood this feeling well.

"Enough about all your petty troubles." Kululu walked up to the podium where Keroro usually stood and rudely pushed Keroro out of the limelight. "I've been doing important things."

"Like making a machine that can make my invasion plan a reality?" Keroro's eyes sparkled.

"Your invasion plan sucks, man. Sorry, I like you a whole lot but it really sucks." Tamama had to speak the truth.

Keroro moped.

"No, I've been communicating with the Keron military." Kululu said. "They called me this morning to give me important orders to relay to us. Ku, ku, ku."

Giroro instantly started listening closer. "The Keron military? Who?"

"The colonel himself." Kululu bragged. "Jealous that they contacted me and not you captain? Ku, ku, ku." Honestly Kululu still didn't know why he was contacted, probably because they knew he was more competent deep down.

Keroro looked shocked. "The...The colonel contacted you? With orders for us? You of all people? Why?"

"Probably because I am a higher rank than you." Kululu shrugged and reminded cracking open a soda can that Tamama hadn't gotten to yet. "Ku, ku, ku. They just value me as more important."

"Hey! That was mine!" Tamama bawled.

"Enough arguing. Get to what the orders are. I don't care who they contacted, all that matters is that the orders got to us." Giroro reminded. He could care less about this power struggle between Kululu and Keroro.

 _Okay that's a lie. I do care about the power struggle because I'd much be in a platoon under Keroro than Kululu._ Giroro decided.

Keroro knelt on the floor in the corner poking at it as he began to develop a million worries instead of listening to Kululu. "Why is the colonel contacting Kululu over me? Did I do something wrong? I'm the sergeant….I'm the one who they should be giving orders too." His aura was one of sadness.

Dororo looked down at him, his hands on his hips. "Umm...You're in my corner." He couldn't move Keroro out though.

"Is it because of the DK66 incident?" Keroro wondered out loud. _Did...Did they consider that a temper tantrum? Did they think it was pathetic? Have they been like secretly communicating with Kululu now ever since then to try to make him the real leader of our platoon?_ Kululu was in horror.

He glanced at Kululu- the possible secret leader of their platoon. Was he trying to usurp him? Kululu was probably definitely secretly communicating with Keron. Keroro was now paranoidly sure of it.

"They probably want to replace me with Kululu as leader!" Keroro accused with horror in his voice. "I have to figure out how to keep my position of power...Perhaps I can better use the Keron star? Hmmm...I'll have to sew it on better or acquire better tape." That was sure to fix his problems.

Kululu couldn't become leader if Keroro duct taped his Keron star so well that Kululu just couldn't get in. He imagined a version of Kululu in his head with a star as his insignia.

It was a disgusting sight. It just didn't belong. He was the only one who rocked stars well. Not Kululu. Kululu was too creepy for stars.

"He's off in worry land...I know it well. He won't get out of his bubble of sadness to listen to the orders that Keron has given us." Dororo sighed with a degree of sympathy.

"Should we wait for him to be listening…?" Tamama asked. "He is our platoon leader."

"If Keroro decides to be an idiot we don't need him. We don't want to disappoint Keron. Tell us our orders now, Kululu." Giroro ordered and requested. He then paused. "Wait...How do we even know we have real orders? You could just be pulling our legs. You have been known to do that."

Kululu laughed. "Ku, ku, ku. And it was beautiful when I did. But this time it's real. I voice recorded the order just in case you need proof."

Giroro nodded. That was enough for him.

Keroro who had perked up momentarily at the aspect that Kululu was lying went back to moping when he realized Kululu had been communicating to Keron over him.

Kululu went ahead to tell them of the orders despite Keroro being distracted. "We've been ordered to capture the pekoponian Haru Hinata and question him." Kululu neglected to mention that it was about his exposure to aliens.

 _I'm not letting them be on the same page as me. If I don't get any information they get less._ Kululu decided. "There's something suspicious about him. He knows something we don't. We need to acquire this information. Ku, ku, ku."

Giroro, Dororo and Tamama looked shocked for a moment at the orders. Capturing one of the pekoponians was one of the last things they had suspected would be their orders.

They had all thought they would have been ordered to fight another alien or pick up some delivery for Keron. One of those two.

Not a kidnapping.

Giroro was the first one to speak up from his shock. "Y-you want us to kidnap Haru? Natsumi's father?"

"Oh? Getting squeamish because in your pathetic imagination he's your future father-in-law? Ku, ku, ku?" Kululu asked. "Don't worry, I doubt that imaginary fantasy will ever come to pass."

Giroro stood up in anger, but also blushing. "Hey! No need to bring Natsumi into this. N-no, it has nothing to do with that!" He denied. By the tone of his voice obviously it did. "I just….I have to speak up about this. I mean I don't trust you at all Kululu, it would have been very easy for you to fake evidence by the colonel for this order."

Giroro crossed his arms. "You're probably lying. And I won't capture an innocent man just so you can have a laugh. This just smells too fishy for my tastes. Why would the Keron military contact you and not our sergeant and leader?"

Keroro stood up finally listening. "Yeah! Giroro's right! You're just a rotten liar! They aren't talking to you!" He smiled in truimph.

"You could always call a high up brother of yours and make sure that I'm not lying. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu suggested. "You know, like Garuru?" He glanced at Keroro, "And to be completely honest I don't know why they contacted me. I mean even your dad was there. They probably just realized that you couldn't do anything that they ordered you to do right." Kululu shrugged. "I mean they ordered you to return home and you negotiated a super computer to let you stay by throwing a temper tantrum. I would contact me if I was in charge of things too in that circumstance."

Keroro frowned. _Dad was there? And he didn't call me?_

"But hey, if I was in charge of things I would have made myself leader to began with. Ku, ku, ku. Actually I might not have. Sounds like a rather tough job and I'm too lazy for it." Kululu decided.

Dororo made some signals with his hands obviously doing some tricks. He looked down in distress. "I'm sorry, Giroro….For once I sense no signs of lies in Kululu's words. I used my ninja mind reading arts to make sure."

"Hey. Ever heard of privacy? Oh wait, no you haven't." Kululu mocked. "Ku, ku, ku. Creep."

Despite the fact that Kululu was the biggest creep, this still hit Dororo and his eyes got all teary eyed. "Oh no! What if I am a creep? I only wanted to see if you were being honest. I'm so sorry."

Giroro wasn't listening to Dororo as he traded places with Keroro in the corner of sadness. Instead he was lost in thought about the fact that Kululu was actually telling the truth.

"I….If it's actually Keron's orders..." He didn't look very happy. Giroro looked quite conflicted actually, but his fist tightened. "I don't want to disappoint Keron. I'm a loyal soldier. I am a proud keronian soldier. I'll...I'll do what they say."

"I see you're not the type to question orders. Exactly what the colonel was talking about… Ku." Kululu spoke to himself.

Giroro apparently didn't hear him. "Still there remains the question why they would want us to capture Haru of all people."

"Maybe because he's an admiral?" Tamama asked in a sort of childish way, not quite understanding that the mother and father of a pekoponian family were not admirals.

Nobody corrected his horrible understanding of the world.

Dororo looked pleadingly at Kululu who he saw as more of the leader of the operation at this moment than Keroro. "Please, don't be too violent with Haru." He begged.

"Pssh. All depends on if Haru gives the information we want. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu did not help Dororo's fears.

"I do not understand why we need to capture Haru. We do not have to obey every cruel order. I mean just yesterday we all wanted to get to know Haru Hinata and be his friend. I wanted us all to be friends with Haru. Let's do that. Let's go back to those days." Dororo begged.

Keroro stood up and pushed Kululu off his podium. _Dororo shouldn't be negotiating with Kululu. I'm the leader. And I gotta remind everybody of that!_

"Ow!" Kululu yelped. He didn't have much strength against Keroro and was just kind of pushed away.

"All right, listen up. I've decided what we're going to do about this whole Haru issue!" Keroro spoke up ignoring all of Dororo's heartfelt pleas for friendship.

Dororo began to cry.

"First off I've come up with a variety of ways to use Dororo as a distraction so we can sneak up on Haru to capture him. I already have a list." Keroro pulled out a list. "First we dress up Dororo as Aki and Haru falls for it. Second Dororo pretends to be an injured kitten, Haru falls for it. Third Dororo is tied to the ceiling and pretends to be an airplane or to think he's an airplane. Haru is so confused he's distracted..." Keroro continued to read.

"Why's it all me being the distraction?" Dororo asked. "Why are you always so cruel to me. And I know you'll forget about me after that airplane one!" Dororo cried his trauma switch now completely on. "You're so mean, Keroro!" He bawled.

Keroro continued to read off his list. _Ha! Take that! Now I'm a better leader than Kululu because I've figured out a better distraction than him! I'll fight you on distractions, Kululu. You might use Giroro as your distraction, but my distraction of Dororo will beat you!_

They would use Dororo and Giroro to fight each other. Keroro just hoped Dororo was noticeable enough to win.

Nobody else paid any attention to a rivalry that only Keroro was a part of or knew of. Instead Tamama leaned his elbow on the table and looked at Kululu quizzically.

"So did Keron tell you why Haru was so important anyway? Why do we need to capture him?" Tamama was a bit childish. And childish people just asked things that confused them. Usually it was a big help because sometimes adults became too shy to ask obvious questions and facts.

Kululu was silent. He didn't really know that either. Keron had refused to tell him.

"Ummm...Sergeant Major?" Tamama asked again. It was almost like Kululu was ignoring his question.

"Captain. You're the leader of this operation. Please give us each a role to follow so we can successfully capture Haru." Kululu tried not to look annoyed by Tamama's questions. Instead he changed the subject.

Because of Keroro's ego, it worked. He listened as soon as Kululu reminded him he was the leader. "Yeah! I'm the leader! And I've got great roles for all of you!"

Tamama perked up, his head snapping towards Keroro to look at him instead of paying any attention to Kululu and asking him questions. He was successfully distracted by Keroro's enthusiasm. "I'll do anything you order me to do! I am ready to take on the role you assign for me, Mr. Sergeant!" He said eagerly.

Tamama was super eager to please and impress Keroro. _Maybe after this mission he'll finally notice me and I'll prove myself to Mr. Sergeant as super amazing and tough and he'll be like "Oh Tamama, I'm sorry I never realized how cool you are I want you to be my boyfriend right now."_ Tamama imagined.

 _And then I'll be like, "Okay. Let's make love right now!" And we'll start having a dangerous love affair because I'm so cool and he's so impressed._ Tamama drooled at his imagination.

Keroro tried to ignore it. He was good at ignoring these things.

"I really will do anything you order. _ANYTHING._ " Tamama enthusiast yet again putting special emphasis on anything, in a much more flirty and saucy tone than anyone besides Keroro was probably meant to hear. He then made kissie faces at Keroro.

Keroro still did not notice any of this.

"Umm...Mr. Sergeant are you paying attention?" Tamama asked. "I want to be a worthy subordinate." He tried to look pitiful so maybe Keroro would take pity on him and give him a big hug.

"Oh! Oh you are a worthy subordinate. Don't worry." Keroro smiled cheerfully and innocently. "Sorry I was thinking about roles for all of you. And I didn't really understand that thing you were doing with your face."

"I was blowing kiss-" Tamama tried to explain.

"Were you thirsty? I know Kululu stole your soda. Maybe you should go get another one." Keroro was too dense for his own good.

Tamama just banged his head on the table in annoyance. "He's so dumb! So dumb!"

"We say that every day about Keroro. But I pity you the most out of all of us." Giroro pat Tamama's back.

Keroro ignored them. "We're going to make the Keron army military proud. We'll do great." Keroro congratulated. He thought for a moment longer, but finally had things together. "Okay so here's the plan..."

The platoon gathered around him. And soon enough they had the bare bones of what would be their plan.

* * *

There were three members of the Hinata House who Keroro labeled as the 'defenders of Haru.'

"In any political sci-fi fantasy-"

"Never start a sentence like that again." Kululu ordered.

Keroro frowned. "Anyway, whenever there's an important figure they have guards or defenders. There are three guards in this situation. Admiral Mama, Lady Natsumi and Lady Fuyuki. I've told each of you who's going after who so that we can deal with them best we can and keep them as far away from the house as possible."

"From what I've seen on recon going around ceiling panels, Haru Hinata likes to sleep in till 12 on most days." Dororo revealed his pieces of information. He didn't approve of this plan but as long as he was helping he could make sure no real danger befell of Haru.

"He really is Fuyuki's dad. Fuyuki likes sleeping in too." Keroro laughed.

"Sleeping in till 12 is the dream. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu agreed.

"Dororo, we really need to talk about your habit of spying on the Hinata family in the ceiling panels with Koyuki." Giroro told him. "Or heck man, sometimes on your own. It's bad. It's Kululu levels bad."

"Ku, ku, ku. Yeah, creeping on people is my gig. Find your own thing." Kululu argued.

"Hey, guys, focus!" Keroro told his platoon. "As you know Tamama, Dororo, Giroro will take care of Admiral Mama since she's the toughest. Kululu should be able to lure Fuyuki and Natsumi away..."

"Why don't I get to take on Natsumi?" Giroro asked. "I specifically requested it."

Keroro frowned and rubbed his head. "We went over this Giroro. You'd get all lovesick and the whole mission would fail." He reminded.

"I would not." Giroro denied quietly to himself. Keroro was right so he wasn't that loud in his protests.

"Anyway, you have your missions! Off you go!" Keroro ordered.

They all nodded and dispersed.

* * *

Tamama and Giroro's job was a tough one. Luring Aki away from her household. Honestly Giroro doubted Keroro's ideas, but he'd follow his leader's orders.

They both got in their alien bug costumes, hoping to pique Aki's curiosity and lure her far into the base, away from her room and Haru.

"I still don't like that I'm the distraction." Dororo cried. He didn't even get to be an alien bug monster!

"Keep quiet distraction and start crying." Tamama yelled.

"Help me! Help me!" Dororo squealed, drawing Aki's attention.

"Dororo?" Aki asked. "What are you doing tied to the ceiling? Are you okay?"

Dororo sniffled. _Although I am a distraction I can be a dignified distraction and help my platoon mates. I can be a stellar actor._ "Aki, please listen to me closely there are dangerous bug aliens that have started ransacking the base- Kululu grew them and they're causing chaos and they did this to me-"

Aki was already gone. She wasn't listening to him. Instead she walked away, following the interesting trail of fake scenery and cool ooze. "Oooh! The keronians have tried yet again to impress me! How fun. I'm sure Natsumi and Fuyuki won't mind if I try their maze out before them."

Aki completely ignored Dororo and went off to follow Tamama and Giroro where ever they were luring her.

Dororo cried. "She forgot about me! C-can...Can you at least help me down?" She did not.

Giroro and Tamama picked up their pace to lure her away. The plan was working.

"One down, Keroro. We'll keep her occupied. It's all up to you and Kululu." Giroro said over a walkie talkie. He couldn't take Aki down, nor could Tamama, but distracting her was easy.

* * *

The plan for Natsumi and Fuyuki was easy. Luring them out of the house with fake phone calls.

Kululu had his voice changing bow on when he called them with a fake phone number.

"Fuyuki?" He said in Momoka's voice.

"Nishizawa!" Fuyuki greeted. "Do you need something?"

"Yes! I discovered an amazing ruin under the school that might have some occult links." Kululu lied. "I was wondering if we m-might...Might adventure through it together?" He made sure to make Momoka's voice sound as shy and lovesick as it usually did to make Fuyuki not be suspicious.

"That would be lots of fun! I'll just go tell Keroro-" Fuyuki suggested.

"Actually I was hoping it could be just you and me...There's been s-something I wanted to tell you for a long time." Momoka's voice told Fuyuki.

Fuyuki gulped. "Oh no...Did the occult classroom's eraser's get stolen again? Is that the big secret?"

 _Man. He's dense. Can't he tell I'm making Momoka fake flirt with him?_ Kululu wondered.

"I'll be right there!" Fuyuki said hurriedly and hung up.

Kululu sighed. He spared no time in changing the voice setting to Saburo's and calling Natsumi up. He didn't even put much work in this one.

"Hey Natsumi!" He greeted.

"Saburo! Wow, you remembered my number!" Natsumi sounded excited. "Um...U-uhh do you need something?"

"You, me. Mutsumi's concert. It should be a live showing at-" Kululu listed the address. Man, did he love being a jerk to Saburo. "Can't wait to see you."

Natsumi squealed. "You too!"

Kululu hung up on her squealing.

"Ku, that was way to easy. The captain should have just made me call Aki to work instead of having some complex distraction plan. It would have worked." Kululu shrugged. At least he could brag now how he had done way better than anyone else could have.

* * *

Keroro was on his own. The hardest job went to the Sergeant after all. And Keroro had the most terrifying job.

He had barely ever gone into that room in the house. It was the terrifying _Admiral Mama's_ room. He knew only death lurked there. Death for him if he was discovered.

It was the most forbidden enemy territory. Even Natsumi and Fuyuki were afraid of going in it.

And when Keroro carefully squeezed his body through the doorway trying to barely open it, he knew exactly why it was enemy territory.

"It's filled with traps!" He realized. It was the most messy room he had ever seen!

Any step he made was coated with death. Why if he stepped on an old crumpled tissue? That might kill him!

Slip on a jacket? He could twist his knee and die! This...This was no walk in the park. It was a mine field. This was the true pekoponian defense and trap.

It was the first time he had seen a mine field on Pekopon, and although Keroro was afraid he wouldn't back down.

He crept around the jackets, shoes and various books. His feet needed to be as quiet as possible as to not wake the sleeping monster that was Haru.

Keroro's eyes saw a glint of something in the corner. A rare manga! Keroro almost leaped for it.

 _No wait! It's a trap! It's bait._ Keroro realized his hand shaking. He wanted it. But as soon as he grabbed it the mountain of other stuff was sure to fall on him no doubt crushing him to death.

"But...If I'm really careful perhaps I can pull it out..." Keroro licked his lips. He wanted that manga.

"Keroro. Do not get distracted!" Giroro had reunited with him, followed by Tamama.

Dororo had not been freed from being tied up yet.

Kululu came into the room through a floor panel instead of the door.

Giroro skidded to a halt as he looked in awe at the mountain of junk. "It's a battlefield!" He said in horror.

"I know soldiers. Be brave. For the path to Haru is incredibly difficult and some of us might not make it." Keroro put his hand on his heart. "I have never seen a battlefield as dangerous as this."

"You're...Serious?" Kululu just leaned on the wall sarcastically. He sat down on the floor. He was just going to watch this idiocy unfold.

Tamama and Giroro slowly crept over to Keroro, to try to make it to the quarter point that he had made it to on his pathway to Haru. They had to stop him from pulling out the manga and make the pile of crap topple down on top of him.

"This place is such a mess..." Tamama said to himself. "We could die here."

"Stay strong, soldier. I'm skilled in navigating mine fields." Giroro boasted. "We can do this."

Their feet were so tiny. They could easily get injured.

Giroro held Tamama's hand, leading him to Keroro. The three reunited.

"We're only 1/4th of the way there. It's a long journey ahead." Keroro spoke to his comrades a serious tone in his voice. "We might not all make it. Just remember. Protect me."

They nodded. This mess was serious business.

"Oh come on. It's only a few feet! Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu just laughed.

"Then why don't you walk over here?" Giroro asked. "Admit it, you can't. It's too messy."

Kululu shrugged. "Because I don't like walking anywhere. And okay, point taken that it's messy. But I've seen...almost worse." Okay so he hadn't seen worse. Aki's room was pretty bad.

He never thought he'd see worse than Keroro's gundam hoarding rooms. But now he had.

Keroro took a few step forward. But he didn't see the deadly trap that was on the floor. Lego's- probably from when someone was a child and hadn't been cleaned up since.

"Mr. Sergeant!" Tamama said with horror. He jumped through the air as if in slow motion. He managed to reach Keroro before his foot hit the painful object and he pushed Keroro out of the way.

Keroro fell into a stack of hangers. Just an entire stack of hangers. Tamama landed in the legos.

"Don't scream, soldier. Suck up those tears." Giroro whispered. They didn't want to wake up Haru.

Tamama covered his mouth trying desperately not to scream. It hurt so much. The lego's were everywhere.

"You...You saved my life." Keroro was shocked. He was bleeding heavily from the hangers, but the lego's were definitely worse.

Giroro did acrobatics to reach Tamama and help him up, managing to avoid the lego trap. He put him on his back. "No member of the platoon gets left behind." He said seriously. "I'll bring you to safety."

Keroro got out of the hangers and crawled over on all fours to Haru. He finally managed to reach the bed.

Haru was sleeping peacefully.

"Wait, how do we wake him up? And better yet how do we remove him from this room?" Keroro realized.

"I...I don't actually know." Tamama realized. "Wait, Kululu! Don't you have floor panels that link up to everywhere in the Hinata House? Can't you just floor panel him away?" Tamama suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Keroro complimented. "You're so smart, Private!"

Tamama beamed. "I'm filled with great ideas."

"If we could have dragged Haru away this whole time, why didn't we let Kululu just pull him into the lab to began with instead of risking our lives in this room?" Giroro asked.

"Sorry, my floor panels don't connect to Aki's room. They can't bring him back to the lab." Kululu shrugged.

"But, but...You came in through a floor panel!" Tamama pointed out.

"Sorry, I can't bring him back to the lab. They don't connect." Kululu repeated the obvious lie. Everybody glared at him.

Keroro looked down at Haru. There was only one way he knew of to wake up people who were lying on beds and sleeping peacefully. "I guess I have to kiss him awake."

Tamama cried. "Noooo…."

"I don't like this anymore than you do. But I have to. For the good of us all." Keroro leaned down.

Giroro sighed. "Or we could keep him asleep so we can drag him out easier." Giroro loaded one of his guns with tranquilizer and shot at Haru. "Problem solved. Please don't kiss Natsumi's father while he's asleep."

The tranquilizer stuck in Haru's arm and Haru was out cold.

"Okay, fine. Good job. But how do we bring him out of this death trap if he's not awake to take himself?" Keroro asked.

Kululu brought out his own ray gun and shot at Haru. "A weight gun. It changes the mass of things to be much lighter. Giroro should be able to carry him now since he's apparently so _capable_ in mine fields." Kululu mocked.

"I know you're insulting me, but I'm instead going to take it as a compliment. I do enjoy mine fields and I am quite capable in them." Giroro dropped Tamama and put Haru on his back instead.

Tamama was annoyed but knew it was for the best. "Can you carry me now, Mr. Sergeant? I'm injured."

"I'm kinda bleeding." Keroro replied. "Why do you even have something like that, Kululu? I mean I guess it helps with lifting pekoponians, but I can't imagine a situation when we'd want to lift pekoponians."

Kululu got a far off look. "Once upon a time there was a small keronian who only wanted a happy life. One day he met a girl who weighed two tons and she tripped over a cord and may have fallen on him and there were many shattered bones...The rest is history." Kululu wiped a tear from his eye. "I made sure that would never happen again."

Keroro didn't know what he was talking about, and honestly he didn't know if he wanted to know.

"Let's hurry before Aki, Natsumi and Fuyuki return." Giroro growled urgently. Keroro nodded.

They all tried to hurriedly take Haru away to the location they had secured for him. One of their giant invasion air ships that was shaped like a cargo hold.

* * *

After an embarrassing concert by Mutsumi where Natsumi could not in find Saburo, she eventually called him up. After several hours of trying to get a hold of him she eventually found out that he had not called her at all.

"The _frogs._ " She said with utter distaste. It must have been them using a voice changer for an invasion plan. She tried to run home and ran into Fuyuki on her way.

"Fuyuki!" She yelled. "Did the frogs use some sort of voice changing device to lure you away from home too?"

"The frogs?" Fuyuki tilted his head. "I don't know, probably."

"Probably? You're incredibly chill about this! The fact that they're doing something sinister." Natsumi frowned.

"Well I mean I got some sort of fake call from Nishizawa about meeting me at school to explore some ruins, but when I got to school she was really there!" Fuyuki smiled. "She was confused about the ruins thing but she found different ruins to explore. It's nice, isn't it? It's like she's always there even when a fake version of her calls. I mean she admitted she didn't make any calls but we still hung out so it's good in my books."

Natsumi sighed. Of course Momoka would somehow find out that her and Fuyuki had something set up and would make the best of it.

Natsumi grabbed Fuyuki hand and ran as fast as she could home. She fiddled with the doorknob and quickly got into her home. "Stupid frog! Show yourself! I know that embarrassing Saburo disaster was your fault!"

There was silence.

All she saw was a note on the table.

Fuyuki walked over. "Sis! There's something here!" He picked it up.

" **Dear Natsumi, Fuyuki and Mama,**

 **I have gone back to the jungle to research bigfoot and the occult. Don't look for me. See ya soon!**

 **-Haru**."

Fuyuki read the letter out loud. He read it again just to make sure he hadn't misread anything. "D-dad...Dad left again?" His voice was shaky. Little tears streamed down his face.

He obviously fell for the letter just because he was so frightened of his father leaving so soon after he had returned.

"I...I thought he had come back! But all he wanted to do was leave a-again...T-this is awful." Fuyuki wasn't holding back his hiccups of tears now.

Natsumi managed to pull the letter out of Fuyuki's hands. A very obvious bad forgery. "Ugh. First of all he wouldn't call Mom, Mama, he'd call her Aki. Second of all bigfoot isn't in the jungle? That's common knowledge." This was so fake.

And she knew exactly who had written this fake. The frogs. Or more accurately the stupid frog.

She ripped up the letter before Fuyuki could stop her. She dropped the shreds on the ground, filled with rage. "If the stupid frog thinks I'm just going to let him kidnap our dad, he needs to think again! This is crossing the line, even for him! I'm going to destroy him."

"S-sarge did this?" Fuyuki couldn't believe it.

"Obviously. It was even in his hand-writing." Natsumi pointed out.

"No, no way. Sarge couldn't have done something like this! He wouldn't have kidnapped someone so important to me. He's a good person!" Fuyuki pleaded mostly to himself. He shook his head.

Natsumi frowned. "Think what you want. I'm not letting him take dad." She growled. "I'm going to fight them. I'm getting him back." She picked up her phone.

"What are you doing?" Fuyuki asked.

"Calling back up. If we're going all out on the frogs I can't do it on my own. We'll need Koyuki, Momoka and Saburo." She explained.

Fuyuki didn't nod. He didn't want to believe Keroro had a part of this.

* * *

It didn't take Saburo, Momoka and Koyuki very long to get there. When they learned the situation was serious they ran over to help.

"The stupid frog and probably all the frogs now that I'm thinking about it have kidnapped my father and made a fake note saying not to look for him. Well I'm going to look for him! I'm not losing my dad again." Natsumi declared to her friends.

"But why would all the keronians kidnap Haru?" Koyuki asked. "Dororo's better than this."

Natsumi pointed above at the ceiling where chopped ropes were. Obviously Dororo had been there but had freed himself eventually.

Koyuki silenced herself.

"Look, some of them were my friends too." Natsumi admitted. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to forgive them when they cross a very bad line and kidnap my Dad. They're invaders and enemy aliens and we've got to remember that."

"I...I don't doubt Kululu would do something like this." Saburo was honestly kind of distressed at how terrible a person Kululu was.

Momoka was texting on her phone. "I've grounded Tamama for a week. No TV privileges or candy." She frowned. "I'll punish him. I'll make him eat his vegetables."

"Please, help me get my father back. We all have our own strengths and I think only together can we fully beat them." Natsumi begged. "This is across a line."

They all nodded.

"I'll help you, Natsumi." Saburo smiled. "With my reality pen. I won't let Fuyuki's father be kidnapped."  
"With my ninja skills I'll get to the bottom of this and figure out what's going on." Koyuki vowed.

"With my super powered armor suit I'll fight all those frogs for Fuyuki! And if they aren't the frogs I'll fight whoever did this!" Momoka declared.

"If...If it is Sarge..." Fuyuki was silent. "I will show him how angry I can be."

Natsumi nodded. Nobody touched their father. Not when he had been gone so long. She didn't want to lose him again.

"We'll get to the bottom of this." She vowed putting her hand in the middle. Her friend's hands circled her.

 _I wonder...Was this just part of their dumb invasion plan? Or...Is there another reason they're doing something so horrible?_ Natsumi wondered.

She didn't know. But she'd find out.

* * *

 **Notes: The Kappa that was mentioned by the Colonel and Keroro's Dad was Omiyo's friend.**

 **The kid that hacked into the keronian military was not Kululu, the colonel was referencing Tororo and how he became a new recruit.**

 **It's mentioned by Kululu in one of the manga chapters that Angol Mois requires more sleep than the rest (A normal angolian getting around) 20 hours which I assume is why she isn't around sometimes in anime episodes. Now I'm pretty sure that's like impossible for Angol Mois to do 20 hours since she is around more than 4 hours a day in the show (or can be speculated) But I assumed in the episodes she's not around in, let's just imagine that she's sleeping instead of being forgotten about.**

 **Other notes: In the guide to Soul Caliber 4 it's mentioned that Angolians weigh a few tons on Earth when they readjust their personal gravity. (Angol Fear weighing roughly two tons I believe) This made me always wince when I was watching Angol Mois on sergeant frog because if ever she fell on someone I would just weep inside thinking. "Yeah. That person is definitely dead." RIP.**

 **Somebody please help me. Somebody please help me named my sister. I mean I know I have the M rating, I have the power but I still can't write the cuss words. You gotta help me sis. Let Kululu and Giroro cuss like they obviously want to. I have some problems.**

 **Also I apologize that Giroro did something rather bad and chose the invasion in the beginning over Natsumi. I realize that Giroro isn't just love for Natsumi and a lot of the time he tries to stick very closely to the invasion. Sometimes in the beginning he goes aboard bad plans because he wants to be a good soldier but by the end of an episode he usually casts that aside for Natsumi.**

 **It's unfortunate but he can't start out happy. He's corporal Giroro. Nobody can start out happy in terms of romance. They either got to be sad and mopey or stuck with a dense idiot. (Poor, poor Momoka, stuck with the densest of idiots)**

 **Only after they have overcoming their trials can they have their happy little romances.**

 **Please review.**


	3. Guilty Party

**New chapter! It took me a few days to write and I am now trapped in a loop of competing with myself for word count. Help me this was supposed to be a short chapter.**

 **Please help me. This chapter was the shortest summary out of all the chapters and it still ended up being 12,000 words.**

* * *

The Cargo Ship that the Keroro Platoon usually used to be over-dramatic was the perfect place to store Haru and watch over him. It was rectangular in size and a dark green. Sometimes the platoon would store equipment there and then launch themselves and the equipment from above and sometimes they just flew over the city for the aesthetic.

There was only really one window to the outside, which was the front where Keroro could stand surveying the Pekoponian land below. But they were not in that room right now.

Haru was tied to a chair, still rather out of it. Giroro packed some pretty powerful tranquilizers after all. Most of the platoon was sitting around him waiting for him to wake up.

Keroro by far was the most impatient though. His legs wobbled as he fidgeted every now and then, waiting for Haru to wake up. The image of Fuyuki's smiling face kept floating in his mind.

He had never seen Fuyuki smile like that. At first he hadn't understood it, because why would Fuyuki be so happy and love someone so much who had abandoned them for most of their life, but Keroro was starting to wonder if perhaps his family model wasn't the only good family model in the world.

 _Just because I've had a dad and Mom all my life doesn't mean other families with single parents don't also love their children._ Keroro tried to tell himself.

He had met Momoka's mom. She had barely been in Momoka's life but it was clearer than the most clear crystal ball that she loved her daughter more than anything. They just had a philosophy that the entire planet was like their back yard. They didn't need to be together to be a happy family and love each other.

Heck, Momoka wasn't the only example. Saburo he didn't even know if the guy had parents, but he didn't seem to ever seem unhappy with his family situation.

Angol Mois didn't live with her parents, she slept most of her life instead and she seemed fine.

 _I might have lived with both of my parents but that doesn't mean I have a stronger bond with my father than Fuyuki did. At times Dad can be so distant. And whenever he announces that he's coming to Pekopon I panic because I don't want to be disappointing him._ Keroro frowned.

Perhaps even though Fuyuki and Haru had been separated most of their lives they had a stronger relationship than Keroro and his father, a bond that had been formed through exposure since Keroro had lived with his parents most of his life.

 _But Dad didn't even call me about these special orders. He spoke to Kululu instead..._ Keroro remembered. Was his bond with his father really as strong as he thought?

Just like Fuyuki, he had followed in his father's footsteps joining the military. But that wasn't because his dad was in the military. It was just because everyone went into the military. He wanted to be like his dad too sure…

 _But I didn't want to be as much like my Dad as Fuyuki wanted to be like his._ His mind drifted back to the party with Haru, where Haru admitted he was a scholar invested in aliens too.

Keroro was positive that Fuyuki had gotten into aliens because his dad had been into them. The occult had been in his way of following in his father's footsteps.

It was a sweet sentiment. Something Keroro admired. But it made his heart ache too. Because if Fuyuki truly cared about Haru then he would obviously be hurt by what Keroro was doing.

Keroro looked down at his hands. They were shaking at the thought and possibility that his actions would hurt his best friend.

 _B-but...I can't not do this._ Keroro realized. _I'm the leader of this platoon. Even if I don't want to do orders I have to be an example for the rest of the platoon members._

He couldn't question. He couldn't go against orders. He had to just play everything off as important. This was important instructions for the Keron military.

And if he wasn't a good example of following orders Dororo, Tamama, Giroro and Kululu were sure to be disobedient as well. Heck, Giroro was only such a bad platoon member because he was placed under such a none traditional leader himself. He wasn't properly inspired very often.

He had to go through with whatever the Keron army wanted to Haru. Even if it might hurt his and Fuyuki's relationship. Even if Fuyuki might be sad.

Deep down though he didn't want to. And as the time drudged on he was getting scared.

"I-I'm...I'm going to go check out the halls. Make sure nobody followed us or has sneaked in to infiltrate our operation." Keroro declared trying to make himself busy.

"Fine by us." Giroro agreed. "We'll watch Haru."

"Do you need someone to go with you?" Dororo asked. "I mean, I'm not volunteering myself. I kinda want to watch Haru." He eyed Kululu suspiciously. Honestly he didn't trust his platoon members to be alone with such an innocent man. He had to make sure they stuck to non-violence.

"Nah, I'm fine." Keroro shook his head and stood up. He casually walked out of the room to walk around the halls.

 _Fuyuki...Will you cry?_ Keroro wondered. _You just got your father back. But I've done something awful and gotten in the way of that._ Keroro was so frightened.

 _Will you hate me Fuyuki?_ He didn't want to think about these things. The inevitable confrontation with his best friend.

He just had to close his eyes and hope they returned Haru unharmed before Fuyuki decided it was them who had captured his father and went after him.

* * *

Tamama watched Keroro leave the room. He had been playing checkers with Kululu trying to pass the time before Keroro had started acting weird trying to distract himself.

"Your turn. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu ordered.

Tamama frowned. Kululu was a rotten cheater and it was near impossible to beat him in checkers. He just kept losing and losing and yelling and throwing checker pieces. It was no fun. And then Kululu would mock him for being stupid.

Tamama wasn't paying much attention to the game anymore though. Instead he was watching the doorway Keroro had walked through. _He's acting twitchier than usual._ Usually Keroro was a lot better at sitting still than this.

He only acted real fidgety when he was nervous, Tamama had noticed. Keroro had a real skill when it came to sitting quietly for long periods of time due to the amount of anime he watched and how controlled he was in movements to put together small pieces of a gundam model.

"Did you hear? I said it was your turn. Or have you given up already. Disappointing. Ku, ku, ku. Mois wouldn't give up." Kululu mocked, definitely using Tamama's hatred of Mois to force Tamama to continue playing with him.

Tamama's eye twitched at the mention of Mois. "That's because she isn't as cool and competitive as me. She enjoys being a rotten loser."

"Ku, actually pretty sure she could beat you. She's beaten me and I've beaten you, so therefore Mois's better than you at checkers. Ku, ku, ku. Wow, I had no idea that Mois was just _soooo_ much better at everything than you. Wait, yes I already knew that." Kululu just liked to be a jerk.

 _How did he turn bragging about losing into something to use against me?_ Tamama's eye twitched. But for once he tried to ignore his biggest trigger of his anger- any mention of Angol Mois at all.

He was still watching the doorway with a forlorn look on his face.

"Tamama? You broken already?" Kululu asked. "That's no fun. Ku, ku, ku."

"I think I'm going to help Mr. Sergeant check for anyone infiltrating us." Tamama stood up before Kululu could stop him.

"Suit yourself." Kululu shrugged. "Giroro! Want to play checkers? Or are you not smart enough to play this game?"

"I'll take you on!" Giroro challenged.

Tamama ignored Giroro's yells and anger as he walked through the doorway to follow Keroro. _Is he nervous about the fact we're holding Haru prisoner?_ Tamama wondered.

Something was off about Keroro. He wanted to be alone and that was very unusual. It just wasn't something Tamama was very used to seeing.

 _Or perhaps he's feeling down?_ Tamama felt himself frown at that thought. He didn't want Keroro to be sad at all. He didn't think Keroro deserved sadness. He deserved happiness all the time.

He approached Keroro. Keroro wasn't doing a very good job investigating the halls. He was just kind of pacing, lost in thought. Most definitely out of it and a little bit down.

"Mr. Sergeant?" Tamama asked reaching over to tap his shoulder.

Keroro jumped a little, surprised Tamama had followed him. "Oh, Private! Didn't know you followed me. Did...Did you need something?"

Tamama looked at his feet for a moment, wondering if Keroro would be offended if he asked him something personal or tried to help. "Do...Do you really want to do this?"

"What?" Keroro asked.

"Do you really want to keep Haru prisoner?" Tamama asked.

Keroro laughed for a moment. It was a weak laugh, a laugh filled with unease and pretense. "It's not really about wanting, Private. Keron gave us specific orders, and don't worry! I'm your leader and I'll make Keron proud." Keroro smiled.

 _I knew some of my platoon might get cold feet. But that's why I'm here. To keep us all together and remind us to follow Keron's bizarre orders._ Keroro reminded himself. He never thought it would be Tamama who would express doubts though. Tamama wasn't as soft as Giroro and Dororo.

Tamama always wanted to prove himself.

"But do you want to do this…? You specifically." Tamama restated.

"My feelings don't matter in this subject." Keroro waved his hand. "Don't worry, private. This is just like the invasion. Just do your duty as a soldier and make Keron proud." Keroro smiled putting his hands on Tamama's shoulders.

Tamama frowned. Keroro was answering vaguely. And the way his smile was cracking at the sides made it quite obvious that he was just putting on a show. He didn't know why Keroro was trying to push himself so hard.

"Mr. Sergeant...You're the Sergeant of my dreams." Tamama told him, putting his hands on top of Keroro's hands on his shoulders. "Whatever orders you give I'll follow them. So say you wanted to go about something different than how Keron wanted you to go about it I'd-"

Keroro pulled his hands away from Tamama. "I'm fine." He said unemotionally.

He couldn't let Tamama entertain the idea of going against Keron. They were the Keroro Platoon, proud keronian soldiers. He had to set a good example.

"But-" Tamama tried to plead to let Keroro help him.

"As sergeant and leader of this platoon it's my job to do whatever Keron wishes, to make whatever they wish a reality." Keroro explained. "That's how I'm able to keep being such an amazing leader of this amazing platoon the Keroro platoon!" Keroro was super proud of himself. "So don't question Keron's orders please. We're going through with them. Their orders are now my orders."

"I'm-" Tamama wanted to frown, he wanted to argue with Keroro to let him help. But he just matched his equally fake smile. "I'm super proud of you. You're our leader."

Keroro beamed.

 _I wonder...If he still feels guilty?_ Tamama felt his stomach curl. He knew Keroro was bound to feel guilty. They were directly hurting his best friend's father after all, kidnapping him.

He'd hurt if they were doing that to Momoka's father and Momoka's dad was a total wimp who couldn't take care of himself like Haru was.

Tamama's hand tightened into fists as Keroro turned around and he felt his eyes well up with a few tears. _Why can't I help him? Why can't I help Mr. Sergeant?_

Why was he always so useless to cheer up the guy he loved? That woman could have done it. Why couldn't he help?

He wiped away his tears hoping he had helped at least a little.

Meanwhile Keroro pushed his growing guilt down, until he was stepping on it. He didn't need it right now. It would only hinder and hurt him.

He hoped nobody else realized he had it. Because it would cause them to doubt the mission too.

* * *

Eventually Keroro came back to the room sometime after Tamama had returned. Haru was finally groggily waking up and Giroro was standing up with his arms crossed.

"He's awake. What do we do now?" Giroro asked.

Haru looked around, at first he didn't really realize he was tied up. Then he struggled for a moment to get up but realized he was no longer capable of that. "H-hey! Hey guys. W-what's going on? Is this one of those funny jokes Aki was telling me about?"

"We're alien invaders. Invaders capture the species they're invading and imprison them." Keroro reminded.

He looked at Giroro for a moment. He didn't actually know the next step. What did they do now that they had captured him?

Haru was looking around not sure if he should be frightened and shouting or if he should be geeking out over the cool alien ship. He seemed to be in a state of conflict.

"Keroro? What's the next step?" Giroro repeated waiting for further orders. He wasn't sure what to do next.

"Uhhh..." Keroro was drawing a blank.

Luckily Kululu answered Giroro's question. "The Keron Army said we had to interrogate and question him." Kululu replied.

Everybody just stared blankly. About what? What were they questioning him about? It sure helped to know.

But Kululu didn't give any answers. And everybody began to realize that he himself hadn't been given those answers either.

Nobody wanted to insult Keron, so they all stood there in rigid silence trying to figure out what to do since they didn't really know what to look for. They weren't exactly sure what they were going after.

Finally Tamama sighed and acted. He walked up to Haru waving his hands. "Yo, yo, what up! Tell us those **things** or else I'm going to have to bash on you!" Tamama loudly threatened getting all up in Haru's face.

He made the word things sound very intimidating even though none of them knew what things Tamama was talking about.

"What things?" Haru asked confused. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Suure you don't! You know your guilty of those things, because why else would you be here!" Tamama was very unspecific. "Now talk and tell us about those things! Or else Private Tamama's going to keep on yelling and bringing on the pain!" He pounded his fists into his chest.

Dororo laughed nervously and pulled Tamama away from directly in front of Haru's face. "Tamama! This isn't doing any good!"

"Awww, but I'm being helpful. I'm the muscle! The intimidating muscle man! After my fists he'll be sure to talk!" Tamama replied with certainty.

"Let me try a much more peaceful way. A way that is just a typical conversation. He's bound to talk from that. There's no need for fists or violence." Dororo pleaded.

Tamama grumbled as Dororo made sure he was nowhere near Haru any longer. He sat down presenting Haru with a hot cup of tea and smiling.

"Ummm...I have no hands. You tied them up. I can't take the tea." Haru reminded.

"Oh. Well, it's only here for aesthetic and calming purposes." Dororo decided. "I was wondering if you could tell us about your various travels. We would love to hear more about your adventures and your discoveries." Dororo tried to get some sort of starting ground, guessing at what Keron could be looking for.

"Umm...I would love to tell you about my travels, but did you really have to abduct me to ask me about that sort of stuff? Seems kinda sketchy." Haru replied, narrowing his eyes at Dororo.

Dororo frowned. So he wasn't going to tell them?

"I liked my method." Tamama punched at a wall.

"I'll get him to talk." Giroro declared. "TALK! TALK TO DORORO!" He ordered, making sure not to point his gun but just being overly loud.

Haru just stared at him. "You aren't very polite, are you? I'm not sure what's going on here but I don't really like it. Now release me and take me back to my family." He ordered.

Giroro moved forward to do so, but then stopped himself. "Wait, that would be dumb." He had almost fallen Haru just asking.

Keroro tapped his foot impatiently. The longer they spent interrogating Haru, the more likely it was that Natsumi would somehow have her 'the frogs are doing something evil' senses go off and she'd come destroy them.

"He's not doing what we want? What do we do? What do we do?" Keroro asked hurriedly. They weren't getting any information at all from Haru, not to mention that they didn't know what they were trying to get.

Haru was looking like he wasn't going to talk even if they knew the right questions to ask. He just looked very stubborn as he turned his head away from the frogs.

Kululu was playing with some sort of device and tools. He finished screwing something together. "Keron didn't give us very good specifics on what we're trying to interrogate him about. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu admitted.

"This makes the whole interrogating thing a lot harder you know." Keroro frowned. "Why didn't you ask them for more information on the mission?" Keroro asked Kululu.

"…." Kululu was silent. Keroro could tell that there was a flash of irritation behind his glances- something close to the look that Kululu only got when he was insulted.

 _He did ask for more information on this mission._ Keroro realized. _They just didn't give it to him._ Kululu needed to learn to be more respectful of Keron and stop questioning orders or else they'd purposefully withhold information from him just to be as big of a jerk as he had been to them.

He could see how this problem had started. An endless cycle of being a jerk to one another. Kululu disrespecting Keron.

Still Kululu didn't answer Keroro. Instead he continued sorting various tools in some sort of gray tray that resembled a dentistry tray. Keroro wasn't exactly sure what it was for.

"I'll find the information that Keron wanted. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu volunteered. "Even if we don't know what it is yet." He paused. "I'll find out what Haru is hiding."

His voice seemed to hold unspoken words in it. Keroro knew exactly what those words were ' _No matter what'._

Kululu approached Haru with the organized tray. Giroro glanced down at the glimmering tools and his mouth opened in horror.

"T-those are torture tools, Kululu!" Giroro yelled.

"You say that about everything sharp and pointy and painful." Kululu shrugged. "Ku, ku, ku. But yes. Yes they are."

This managed to get Haru's attention and his gaze snapped directly towards Kululu, his face paling beads of sweat gathering on his brow. "L-listen I don't even know what you want from me!"

"That makes two of us." Kululu said coldly. "But don't you worry, I'll get your secrets and uncover this mystery at whatever cost. Ku, ku, ku. Intelligence is my strong suit after all."

Keroro could just stare in horror at what Kululu was saying. Was Kululu that childish that he was so insulted that Keron hadn't given him the full information on this mission that he was willing to torture Haru to get it?

Was he that thirsty for knowledge?

 _He's pure evil._ Keroro realized. He knew Kululu was sadistic, but this was different. This was the dangerous sort of sadistic that wasn't for no reason. This was out of a childish belief that he was entitled to something he hadn't been given.

In this case the knowledge that Haru was hiding. The curiosity was driving him mad.

"You might not know what we want. We might not know what we want. But your brain has all the secrets Keron so desperately wants to get a hold of. And if I just play around with it enough we can easily see _everything._ " Kululu wasn't even threatening Haru. That's what was scary. He was just declaring what he was going to do.

Haru struggled desperately against the ropes. "Please! I thought you were good aliens! That's what my son said. Don't do something like that!"

"We can discard the rest of you later. All I need is your brain. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu shrugged. "That's all Keron wants after all. Information. They never specified your condition." His mouth drew into a twisted grin.

This must have been why Keron had contacted him instead of Keroro, because they knew he would cross _**these**_ sorts of horrible lines. Keron always had a sort of view that if they didn't specify that a prisoner was supposed to be alive they usually weren't supposed to be.

"Kululu! Kululu no! I won't let you hurt Natsumi's father! This is too far!" Giroro launched himself at Kululu, ready to pull Kululu away from Haru or restrain him.

Dororo did the same speeding over like a lightning bolt. "I came here for this exact reason. To restrain you and make sure no harm comes to innocent. You are despicable."

Giroro grabbed at the back of Kululu's arm, but Kululu's other arm quickly pulled out a taser that he also had been working on. He shoved it into Giroro's side zapping him until he was fried on the ground. He then spun around and did the same to Dororo.

"AUGH!" Dororo screamed.

"N-no..." Giroro tried to get up, but could not. Part of him knew that this was a legitimate method of getting information out of Haru.

And that part of him was horrified that his legs wouldn't move. This was a line that he wasn't willing to cross.

"Now that I've gotten the softies out of my way I should be able to be on my way." Kululu stepped over their bodies and continued onward towards Haru.

"H-help me!" Haru begged.

Keroro just stared. He wasn't sure what he could do though. _I'm not as good in fights as Giroro or Dororo. And I probably can't withstand a taser._ His legs were freezing up.

He was the platoon captain, but giving Kululu orders was never something that worked. Kululu never listened to the words 'stand down'. He never stopped terrible actions that he would do.

Keroro didn't know. He was entirely useless. And because of his uselessness, his fear, his guilt that Fuyuki would break from this, he was frozen to the spot.

He wasn't even looking at Kululu now. The scene of Haru, Kululu, his mind was erasing it. It was too difficult to picture. Instead he was choosing to pay more attention to the objects in the background or on the floor.

He could still see the miserable color yellow though. _Wait, that's a banana peel. Not Kululu._ Keroro realized.

His legs stopped being frozen. It was just instinct. The serious threat of torture was no longer happening. Instead his comedy soul had taken over.

Perhaps Kululu wouldn't want to torture if he was laughing about how cool Keroro was. Keroro ran over to the banana peel and slipped on it.

"Keroro now is not the time-" Giroro tried to say.

But as Keroro slipped through the air his hands out to land he swooped in the air towards Kululu, pushing him away from Haru by sheer accident.

Kululu flew threw the air and into the wall making a Kululu shaped imprint with the force from the push. He was knocked out cold, unable to do any harm or damage to Haru.

Keroro landed. "Ow!"

"Mr. Sergeant! You saved Haru!" Tamama clapped. "You knocked out Kululu."

"I...I did?" All Keroro had been thinking about was slipping on that banana peel. "I did!" He clapped for himself. He had resolved the situation through his incredible luck as he did so many other times.

Keroro laughed and smiled. Giroro got up and helped Dororo up as well. They all smiled. Haru's brain existed another day.

"Are you okay, Haru?" Keroro asked.

Haru was frowning. He no longer looked so frightened now that the threat of Kululu was gone. He couldn't even see Kululu's face, it was so buried in the wall. Instead he mostly just looked sad at his circumstances.

"Yeah...I mean I'm still disappointed that you kidnapped me, but I guess that was just kind of inevitable. I mean you are invading aliens..." Haru said looking down. "I just wish we could have been friends."

Keroro frowned. The way he spoke about friendship reminded him so much of Fuyuki. His words were so kind. There was no hint of anger, just the desire to try to understand why the keronians had captured him.

He looked down at his hands. He knew they wanted to untie Haru's bounds, but he could not. If Haru would not give them the information he would have to stay kidnapped until he finally relented.

"We were always meant to be enemies." Haru said sadly. "You're invaders after all. But seeing you spend time with my family. I truly believed we could be friends. But it's not to be."

Keroro felt hurt inside. _We could still be friends after this. I want those happy days with Fuyuki and his family. Just everything being normal._

Keroro wanted so badly to release him. But he could not. "Please tell us." He begged. He didn't know what he was asking for. He just asked.

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you about them." Haru replied, apologetically.

Keroro looked up confused. "Them?" That was something he hadn't expected. Who was them? Did Haru know what they were looking for after all. "Who's them?"

Haru looked at Keroro for a moment tilting his head. He momentarily stopped struggling his shoulders sagging. "Wait...You're not after….? I thought I knew what you were after." He mumbled mostly to himself. "Ha ha. Perhaps I was wrong." A nervous laugh.

"What are you talking about?" Keroro asked still very confused.

"You...You really don't have any idea why you've captured me, do you?" Haru realized with a dawning knowledge. As if he knew that he had more information in this situation than the small keronians he looked at them with new pity.

He was no longer the victim. He was in power in this situation. He looked at them with such pity as if they were completely in the dark.

His struggling stopped and his body was much calmer, his breathing steadying and his fingers become masters of the rope he was fiddling with around his wrist. Finally he spoke asking a question of his own.

"Why were you sent to this planet? What reason did you have to come here? What is your true mission?" Haru asked.

Keroro furrowed his brow in further confusion. "What are you talking about? Don't you know? We're invaders. We've mentioned that a few times. We were sent to this planet to invade it." Keroro stated easily. _What does he mean_ _ **true**_ _mission?_ Haru was just paranoid.

Haru looked taken aback by Keroro's response and confusion. "Wait, this is truly for your invasion? Or..." They truly looked like they believed that. Every single one of them.

"Yeah, we're proud invaders." Giroro nodded, polishing a gun. He didn't mean to be holding the gun to look threatening. He just wanted to be cool. "Someday we'll invade this planet, pathetic Pekoponian. For Keron." He looked proud.

"A five man platoon group is a platoon. There would be no reason for us to be here if we weren't invading. We've had a lot of tribulations on our journey." Dororo explained.

"We all follow the great Sergeant Keroro!" Tamama cheered.

They all looked so proud of their mission. Their invasion.

They were invaders at heart.

"I'm sorry..." Haru apologized as they chattered about their invasion. "I'm so sorry about your invasion."

"What, why? Because you don't think it's going to happen, bub?" Tamama accused. "We'll do it. We're trying suppper hard!"

"No, because you've been kept in the dark about something. About this planet. This planet is much too strong to invade. So you're being kept in the dark. And I'm so sorry about that." Haru insisted.

Keroro waved his hand. "Typical Pekoponian talk, believing they'll never get invading and they're too 'strong'. We're not being kept in the dark about anything." This was just so normal of the pekoponians. Everyone said their invasion was bound to fail.

He wasn't going to fall for any Hinatas saying that nonsense. Sure Natsumi might be strong, but someday they'd invade.

"I am not your enemy." Haru insisted, a low plead to his voice. "But...But your planet might be due to the secrets they've obviously kept from you. Doesn't it bug you how secretive they are?"

"You're just trying to turn us against Keron!" Keroro realized.

Haru was quiet and denied nothing.

"Good luck with that. We're all loyal and proud Keron soldiers. With the exception of Dororo." Giroro stood proud.

"Hey!" Dororo moaned.

"Well, I mean it's true. Aren't you Mister Proud Traitor?" Giroro pointed out.

Dororo inspected his feet looking guilty.

"Yeah! Dororo likes the pekoponians better than us!" Tamama frowned.

"Maybe if you remembered me like Koyuki does you'd be better in my mind." Dororo frowned. "And it wasn't like I'm the only one here who's a little too close to a pekoponian for comfort. Huh, Giroro? Right?" He accused.

"What you say about me?" Giroro looked angry.

Keroro stepped between their fight. "Enough guys. He's trying to turn us against our planet and now each other. He's being smart. We should expect some degree of smartness from Fuyuki's dad. He had to get it from somewhere after all."

Tamama snickered.

Haru frowned at the accidental insult towards Aki.

"Free me." Haru begged.

Nobody moved to do so. They didn't believe him in the least bit that he was on their side.

"We're not going to betray Keron like that." Giroro frowned. "Keron told us to capture and interrogate you. So you'll stay here."

Haru sighed. He had to get out of this situation. He looked around desperately trying to think of a plan. Finally he smiled and thought of one. "Listen I'll tell you the truth about what's going on if you free me."

"Like we'll believe that-" Giroro harshly said.

"Really? Wow, that sounds nice!" Keroro's eyes sparkled.

"And I'll prove to you for sure that Keron doesn't want me for any reason relating to the invasion. You only deal with missions related to your oh so important invasion, right? You're proud invaders right?" Haru asked. "So if they wanted me for some other reason that didn't make much sense or help the invasion you'd see no reason to keep me. You'd be able to use your own judgment to see that I can't help the invasion."

Keroro thought for a moment. "That would make a certain amount of sense. I mean we are proud invaders after all. I want to invade the planet. If...If you can truly prove that Keron made a mistake in needing to interrogate you for the invasion or something-" After all interrogating Haru had to do with the invasion.

Why else would the Keroro platoon be contacted?

Haru beamed. "Well goodie then! Because I know exactly what Keron wanted you guys to ask me about?"

"You do?" Tamama asked.

"I figured it out while you were trying to ask me about it. The blue guy-" Haru glanced at Dororo.

"Dororo." Dororo corrected a little irritated.

"Gave me the idea. He reminded me that I had gone on a lot of travels. During those travels I gained a unique power." Haru explained.

Keroro listened intently to the story.

"I became a psychic. I have magical powers now that are mostly just pretty useless. All I can do is see your true selves." Haru explained, his eyes locked onto Giroro's gun.

It was as if he was thinking about what happened after he got untied. That he might still be a prisoner.

"This whole psychic biz won't help your invasion. Keron thought they were helping but they weren't. So you better release me." Haru begged.

Giroro crossed his arms and released a loud laugh. "HA HA HA!" He laughed. "A psychic, huh? Who can see our true selves? That's the lamest lie ever! Who's going to fall for that?"

"I believe it..." Keroro frowned.

"Well you're an idiot." Giroro frowned. "Sure, I could believe your whole story about Keron thinking that they were helping us by enlisting the help of a psychic, but psychics don't exist. You are not a psychic." He glared. "Stop lying or I'll have to tranquilize you."

Haru frowned. He thought his plan had been pretty good. He thought for a moment. "Let me prove it to you. That I really am a psychic."

His ropes finally dropped after many minutes of fiddling with them. But surrounded by four enemies he was still trapped. He didn't try to run immediately. There was no point to running in an airship.

Instead he walked up to Giroro. "I can tell you about your true self. See your true self." Haru declared. He put his hand on top of Giroro's and looked for a moment as if he was a psychic reading his mind.

It was all mystical in a strange way. Haru said a bunch of words that sounded like gibberish but Keroro was sure were pekoponian somehow. "Jfkldmnop" That was pekoponian right?

Tamama rolled his eyes. "This...Is so obviously fake...He does realize none of us will fall for it, right?"

Haru pulled back. "I have read your true self. And I have found something that nobody else would know about you." Haru declared.  
"Oh? And what's that?" Giroro asked in a taunting and non-believing voice.

Haru thought for a moment as if he was trying to come up with the bull crap that he would sell Giroro. "You have a crush on my daughter?" He said the first thing that came to mind. He almost sounded unsure of what he was saying.

There was a moment of awkward silence and then Giroro made a gasping sound. "How did he know?"

Everybody's heads turned to Giroro and they stared at him blankly.

"I...Keroro...He actually is a psychic…." Giroro's knees were shaking. "There would be absolutely no other way he could know that. Wait, no now I'm confessing to that. That isn't true! Um...Pretend you didn't hear what he said."

Keroro rolled his eyes as Giroro begged him to forget what he heard. Dororo winced at how embarrassing Giroro was being.

"All right. So Giroro fell for it. But like, you gotta know Natchi's dad that literally nobody else will fall for that ploy." Tamama tried to point out.  
Haru smiled. "Let me offer to read all your minds then! I'll tell you all your true selves!"

Tamama frowned and backed away. Sure, the way Haru was making it sound made it really sound like his kidnapping didn't have anything to do with the invasion, but… That made him frightened.

 _Why would Keron be jerking us around and pulling our chains and giving us none invasion orders? Why is Haru the fake psychic so important?_ Tamama wondered.

Haru eventually reached Tamama and put his hand on Tamama's head as well. He did the gibberish words and eventually reach his true self. "You're filled with love. You're in this invasion for love. You're in love with your capt-"

"Ah! Ah! You don't need to say anymore! I believe you!" Tamama said hurriedly. He didn't need Haru outing him to Keroro.

"Okay. Just know that you should embrace your memories of love instead of using your love to invade. Perhaps stop the invasion?" Haru sneakily tried to implant the idea of halting the invasion into Tamama and Giroro before they realized it.

"You believe him? So he's a real psychic?" Keroro was confused.

"Sure." Tamama didn't know if Haru was just not as dense as the rest of his family since Tamama was so obvious about his crush on Keroro or if he was a psychic. All he knew was he wanted Haru to shut up.

Haru smiled and glanced at the two conscious members left who might not believe him. He approached Dororo, placing his hand on his head just like the others. Thinking for a moment he eventually reached a conclusion about his true self. "You're here for love." He declared.

Dororo beamed and wiped a joyous tear from his eyes. "Yes! For the planet! He's right again, Keroro."

Keroro frowned. _Wow. All my platoon members believe that Haru is in fact a psychic. They must be right._ It couldn't be just that Haru was faking it and telling them the obvious things they wanted to hear.

"My turn now!" Keroro was kinda jealous that Haru hadn't read his true self.

"But...But I thought you already believed me?" Haru reminded.

"Doesn't matter. Do mine!" Keroro said cheerfully, and excitedly as he jumped up and down.

"Um….You have more love in you than invader's spirit?" Haru suggested, not touching Keroro.

Keroro smiled. _So I'm super nice and filled with love like Dororo, Giroro, and Tamama?_

Well, if the psychic Haru said it, it must be true. The Keroro platoon looked at Haru in awe taken in by his psychic act because they were a bunch of idiots.

Kululu remained firmly in the wall not getting any psychic readings.

Keroro frowned after a moment. "Hey! You didn't do the cool psychic reading part. Where you put your hand on my forehead and said the pekoponian words. Do that part so you'll get a better reading." Keroro requested childishly.

Haru laughed, the seriousness of the situation no longer having any meaning to him. He was having fun. Keroro had that affect on people. Keroro obviously just wanted some attention and fun. "Okay." He agreed.

He walked over to Keroro. "Keep your mind clear so I can have the best reading!" He teased.

"Okey dokey!" Keroro grinned.

Haru's hand made contact with his head.

Haru's eyes fully opened and the whites of them turned red and blood-shot as if they were burning in pain. He screamed in agony. "AHHHHH!"

"A-admiral Papa?" Keroro asked.

Haru dropped to his knees, his mouth open and his eyes opened. He eventually took his hand off of Keroro's head to rub at his eyes and forcefully close them since they weren't blinking on their own. He let out a hallow cry of pain as he wiped the tears off.

"H-haru what h-happened?" Giroro asked, moving forward to Natsumi's father.

Haru ignored Giroro. "W-what…..What are you?" He asked Keroro directly looking at him with a look that Keroro hadn't seen before.

It was a mixture of confusion and something else. Keroro finally realized that the look he was getting was one of the most primal looks of fear, like there was nothing that could be done about it.

But Haru also looked like he didn't know why he was feeling that way himself. That he was just confused.

 _What...What does he mean?_ Keroro wondered. He just stared blankly at Haru wondering what to do. He wanted to move forward and say he was sorry if he caused him any pain. Instead he just stared, the hurt already conveyed in his eyes.

He stared so much at Haru he didn't notice what was behind him. That the hole shaped like Kululu was now missing a Kululu.

That Kululu was now slowly creeping towards Haru while Haru was distracted. Making no sound while everybody was confused, Kululu zapped Haru with some of his electrical cords in his headphones knocking Haru out once again.

"AUGH!" Haru let out one last cry before he was out.

"Ku, ku, ku. Thought it would be best to get him while he was distracted. Thanks for doing the job, captain." Kululu pat Keroro on the shoulder like they were partners in crime.

Keroro looked at Kululu in disgust. He didn't want to be associated with whatever plans Kululu had for Haru.

"That whole psychic act was gold. Can't believe you all fell for it when he was basically giving you all the same mumbo jumbo about 'love' being your true selves and how it was more important than the invasion. I thought you all prided yourself on being loyal Keron soldiers." Kululu reminded.

Giroro looked down guiltily. "I am...It's just...Psychics are scary."

"He wasn't a psychic!" Kululu looked annoyed. "You would have realized that if he had known I was awake the whole time and had said the same thing about love to me. But I had to pretend to be still out because apparently I'm the only one who's focused on the real mission and what Keron asked of us." His lips drew in a frown.

"Ku, ku, ku. It doesn't even matter if Haru has nothing to do with the invasion. What matters is we were asked to capture and interrogate him. Those are our orders. Keron wouldn't tell us what we were looking for so we can only assume we tried our best. He wouldn't give the secrets up." Kululu sounded majorly annoyed and perplexed.

"So? We return him to his family now?" Keroro asked hopefully.

"We've questioned him enough." Kululu gave a nod to end this. He crossed his arms and tapped his foot and they could all tell he was fuming from not being able to discover Haru's secrets.

Haru had beaten Kululu in a way by knowing of something he didn't. And they knew Kululu was a sore loser who hated being beaten.

"You know what Keron does to disobedient prisoners. We've done our best at questioning him. We never had orders to bring him alive. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu covered his mouth although they could all see the sinister and angry expression.

He fully intended to get rid of Haru.

"Kululu, w-we can't-" Giroro insisted. It was the same fight again.

"I would love to research Haru more, but we need to do our orders. You don't want Keron to know we couldn't get anything out of him and then let him live?" Kululu asked. "We'd be punished and heck, they'd probably capture him with a better platoon to do worse to him and the rest of your precious Hinata family. Ku, ku, ku. That's just the way these orders work."

Kululu was quiet for a moment as Giroro stopped struggling listening to the true heaviness of his words.

"I can't believe I'm the only loyal keronian soldier. You don't release prisoners who haven't helped you at all. You finish the job. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu explained.

Giroro frowned. He knew. He knew what being a loyal keronian soldier was all about. And he knew that although Kululu was mad and perplexed by Haru not all of his desire to kill Haru stemmed from anger.

It also stemmed from wanting to be a good keronian soldier to, making their planet proud. He couldn't blame Kululu because he was the same way.

 _I….I think we wouldn't be fighting against Kululu on this so much if it wasn't Natsumi and Fuyuki's father. Which makes us just as bad as him._ Giroro clenched his fist.

He was selfish. Biased. He could see that Keroro was sharing the same look at him wondering if loyalty to Keron was worth this.

Giroro had always been more of a loyal soldier than Keroro was and he could feel himself doing nothing to stop Kululu as Kululu moved past him.

The door flew open before anything could happen though. "STUPID FROG!"

Giroro already felt himself thankful to be caught and that Natsumi was here. Even if he would be punished horribly.

Natsumi huffed, her entire body engulfed by anger as she glared at all of the frogs, none spared from her wrath. Koyuki, Momoka, Saburo and Fuyuki were behind her like her very own platoon.

"The Nishizawa helicopters have latched onto the ship." Momoka readjusted a device on her ear that allowed her to communicate with Paul.

Now that she mentioned it, Keroro did feel the ship shaking like it had just been hooked into by giant hooks and it was getting pulled down.

"This ship will land soon enough." Momoka hissed. "And then we'll put a stop to your activities."

Fuyuki just stuck closer to Momoka than usual. He looked at Keroro in absolute horror and betrayal. "We...We heard your plans, Sergeant..." No longer did he use the nickname Sarge.

Keroro gulped. "What plans?" _The questioning bit._

"You...You not only kidnapped our father who we've waited for, for so long, but...But you were going to kill him!" Fuyuki shouted, trying not to cry unsuccessfully.

Keroro took a step back. "That wasn't us! That wasn't me! That was Kululu!" He blamed.

Kululu rolled his eyes. "Oh, blame me when things get tough, huh? Ku, ku, ku. You know I was right. Keron probably wanted that."

Natsumi didn't give them time to argue, she pointed at her father. "This is the battle for his life! Attack! We've got to win for him!"

Everybody nodded and dispersed. This was a five against five battle. And it was time to take down their chosen partner.

* * *

Saburo rushed to Kululu, flying on some sort of skateboard hover board that he had drawn.

"Gonna fight me?" Kululu mocked. "Ku, ku, ku. Sounds like fun. Let's see who really is the strongest between the two of us-"

Saburo didn't have a playfulness or any amusement in his face though. "You were going to kill Fuyuki's father?"

"You wouldn't understand." Kululu waved his hand, pressing a button to let his wires grab a pipe above him to dodge a blow from Saburo's pen after the boy drew a laser gun. "You've never been loyal to anything in your life. You've never been a soldier."

"Kululu! This isn't about being a Keron soldier!" Saburo cried. "I heard the last bit, that Haru wouldn't give you some sort of information. You were angry weren't you?" Saburo asked.

Kululu scoffed. "Tch." He blasted a sound wave as Saburo covered his ears.

"You were going to kill him over a childish problem. You were being childish." Saburo sounded almost disgusted.

"Don't mock me. I'm not childish. No one will call me that." Kululu charged some electricity to zap Saburo.

Saburo jumped over Kululu's head before he could ram him with his wires. "You've crossed a line, Kululu. Murder because you couldn't get your way...Heck, just murder on general is a line that I'm not willing to cross!" Saburo shook his head. "This is wrong."

"I always did want to fight you. Never knew you'd be so over dramatic about it." Kululu shrugged. If Saburo wasn't going to fight him, he'd just have to flee to the ship's control panels to try to shake off the Nishizawa helicopters.

He darted.

"Where are you going, you little rat!" Saburo followed him as Kululu quickly pulled apart the dashboard to play around with the wires and the ship's control panel.

Saburo tackled Kululu. He could have used his pen but he decided Kululu was being a jerk and some things just needed to be solved hand to hand.

"Ku. Let me go!" Kululu tried to struggle free.

"I will not let you shake off the Nishizawas. You will not hurt Haru. None of you frogs will." Saburo cursed. "But it's my job to deal with you out of all of them. I have to keep you from losing yourself to murder."

"Saburo..." Kululu was quiet for a moment. "You really don't know a thing about me, do you? Keronian soldiers kill all the time." He paused. "I bet even Tamama's killed someone. Heck, I know for a fact Dororo and Giroro have. Dororo was an assassin. Keroro probably sent men to die. What I'm doing is no different."

Saburo didn't say anything. His grip just tightened and he tried not to cry for Kululu's sake, having not realized any of this. He had never known that the keronians job was so heavy.

The two just kinda struggled on the ground.

* * *

Momoka stood before Tamama in her armored suit, her arm canon out and charging. They both stood looking at each other at a stand still.

 _We both know that this ship will fall and injure everyone if either of us moves or attacks._ Momoka realized. Either of their energy blasts would tear a hole in the hull.

So she decided to talk, for now. "How could you, Tamama?" She asked, her voice strained. "This is Fuyuki's father. You were going to kill him."

"It was Keron's orders." Tamama replied. "And I didn't want to kill him! I only thought we were capturing him. That's what the rest of the platoon implied. We've captured Natsumi in the same way loads of times!" Tamama pointed out.

"But Fuyuki's still touchy on the Haru subject!" Momoka reminded. "And it sure sounded like you all were ready to kill him."

"I've never been on a capture mission like this!" Tamama tried to defend himself. "I had no idea Keron usually killed their prisoners. I mean it makes sense in hindsight but, I didn't know!"

"Even if you did know you would have still done it though." Momoka walked closer. "Because Keroro was here."

Tamama was silent. Well, there was denying that.

"Tamama...I know this will be hard for either of us to understand but sometimes you don't follow everything your love interest wants you to do. Sometimes things cross the line and are terrible." Momoka told him. "You gotta have your own moral code. Don't do everything for a guy."

Tamama winced. She was making him sound spineless, will less. Like that woman. "I didn't do it because of Mr. Sergeant. I'm an invader too!" Tamama reminded.

Momoka couldn't forget that. She couldn't make him out to be the innocent and crucifix Keroro for something he was obviously suffering for to. He wouldn't let Keroro take the fall.

They were both invaders. And if he wanted to be Keroro's equal he had to take the fall too.

"Well then! I'll have to punch some sense into you!" Momoka threatened. "You're already grounded but you're no invader anymore on my planet. You are my pet!" She took off one of her armored sleeves so the ship wouldn't be destroyed.

Tamama smiled and nodded. "No energy blasts. Just hand to hand combat. I can do this. I like it this way."

Momoka and him charged at each other their fists out, ready to hit one another.

* * *

Koyuki was holding her ninja knives. She hadn't thrown any yet. She just looked at Dororo with hollow eyes.

"We should...Probably sit at the sidelines or try to talk some sense into all of them." Dororo suggested, as if he was on Koyuki's side. He walked up to her cheerfully. "It hurts very much to see friend against friend."

Koyuki threw the knife. It barely missed Dororo's cheek.

 _She...She purposefully missed. That was a warning throw._ Dororo knew Koyuki's ways. And he knew when she got serious even he struggled against her. "L-lady Koyuki?"

"Dororo, do you think you aren't a part of this?" Koyuki asked, her voice filled with hurt. "You were with them too! How do you think I would feel if my best friend was part of the platoon who killed my other best friend's father?"

"Lady Koyuki I would have never let them hurt Haru-" Dororo tried to tell her.

"Yes you would have!" Koyuki yelled. "You helped them kidnap Haru! When Natsumi said she needed help I assumed fully that you weren't a part of this. Because you were always on my side."

"I...I apologize...I wanted to do my duty to Keron and try to make this as non-violent as possible. I hope you understand..." Dororo bowed.

This time Koyuki's knife did not miss, it barely drew blood from his cheek when she threw it. Dororo hissed in pain.

"You weren't doing anything to stick up for Haru when we came in!" Koyuki sounded mad which was something rare for her.

Dororo felt truly bad. She was right. _I wanted to fit in so I was only waiting for the last minute to stick up for my beliefs. That and she and I both know that I would have been easily stopped if somebody reminded me of my trauma switch._

Koyuki was completely right. He had hurt and betrayed her. He had the best intentions at heart and he had no idea to try to keep his platoon from hurting anybody, but in practice he had not been very good at that.

Seeing Koyuki be angry at him of all things hurt more than any blade.

"I came to help Natsumi. I was sure you wouldn't be here." Koyuki's voice was filled with betrayal again. "Are you going to fight me? Like all your friends are fighting their friends?"

"Koyuki, you're my most important-" Dororo tried to tell her.

"You are going to fight me, aren't you! Well, I'm a ninja. And I'll defend what I believe and I my people. Just like you'll defend your friends." Koyuki didn't let him finish. Instead she darted at him with her knife.

Dororo very weakly parried her blows. He could see that Koyuki wasn't crying. As a ninja she had learned to keep her emotions out of battle. But he could feel in her heart that she wanted to cry. "Lady Koyuki, I'm so sorry- I wasn't thinking-"

"I don't want to hear the excuses. Not...Not this time. I'm on your side usually. But...Natsumi was so happy to have a dad. And that was about to go away." Koyuki replied..

Her swings were bitter. And Dororo cried a lot more than Koyuki did.

He hadn't been hit. He was just sad that Koyuki was disappointed in him.

* * *

Natsumi crushed an iron beam in her hand that was lying around from the various battles. That was how angry she was.

"Stupid frog! Y-you...You...You won't be forgiven this time!" Natsumi walked slowly towards him, each step filled with the oncoming doom that was Keroro's death.

Keroro made a squeaking sound out of fear. "We weren't really going to kill your dad! I'm not loyal enough to Keron to kill someone! I'm more of a comedy sort of guy!"

Giroro just stared at him. He sighed and tapped Keroro's shoulder. "I'll take this one. I'll be Natsumi's opponent. I...I can fight her."

"You're a pal, Giroro! I would have died in one hit!" Keroro tapped out and switched places with Giroro.

"I'm not quiet sure that I won't either." Giroro confessed. Honestly he felt like he kind of deserved whatever he was getting though.

Why did it always have to be Keron or Natsumi? Why did he always have to choose? And why did whatever he choose feel like the wrong choice? If he chose to be a loyal Keron soldier, he felt horrible for Natsumi's sake and Natsumi was angry at him. If he chose Natsumi he had let down his entire platoon and planet and the legacy that rode on him.

He always made mistakes. He couldn't remember a single time that he had made the right choice. And this time was no different. Keron or Natsumi. There was no both and he had done something that was horrible.

"Here." Giroro slid a gun across the floor. "If you're my opponent I want us to be equally armed. Even if I might die from it, I want a fair battle. I'm not...Not about just straight up murder." He hoped that might appease Natsumi.

Usually when they were fighting Natsumi had a smile on her face. She was a warrior deep down after all.

"Oh? Like you were going to do to my father?" Natsumi accused. "You weren't going to give him a fair chance." She picked up the gun.

Giroro took a step back. She was right, but she was also wrong. He suspected he would have probably chickened out in the end if Dororo or Keroro hadn't stopped Kululu.

"I...Keron's prisoners….If Keron had said we had failed they would have captured him on his own...There would be no need for the rest of the Hinata family. They would have murdered the rest of you Natsumi-" Giroro made a point of one of his fear's.

"Oh? So murdering my dad is protecting me? That's the biggest bull crap I've heard. Ever." Natsumi glared and started to shoot. Her shots weren't aimed. They were just everywhere.

Giroro managed to dodge most of them.

"I know...I know." Giroro agreed. "I wasn't thinking in the future. Kululu's the one who suggested the killing bit making points-"

"It's all of your fault for not stopping him as soon as he opened his mouth! Being a bystander is just as bad!" Natsumi yelled. "Fight me!" She ordered in annoyance seeing that Giroro's fingers weren't on the trigger of his gun.

Giroro didn't reply. Her feelings of intense betrayal and sadness was making it easy to have openings on her, her guns not aimed. He could easily beat her for once since he was just more trained than her.

But he didn't want to. He wanted Natsumi to have this win.

He shot behind Natsumi to make her feel angrier at him.

Natsumi's contort face turned to intense sadness and a frown. Her shoulders slumped and she tried not to let out a cry. "Giroro, I… I waited so long for him. How could you of all people be a part of this? How could you do this to me."

"We're enemies. I'm part of Keron Keron soldiers don't get a choice in what orders they take. If you want to make your family and planet proud you do as your ordered." Giroro replied. "I understand...A little bit Natsumi, your sadness. I also have parents."

Natsumi didn't say 'no duh.'

"Our family is a militaristic one. If I disappoint them I'm nothing. I won't have any family if I fail. What I have is a legacy. I know...Part of you feels that this Haru thing is your fault. But it's not. It's our fault for being your enemies and capturing him." Giroro pointed out. "We both have our places in the world. Our goals. And unfortunately they don't interline."

Natsumi shot at his torso again. This time some of the bullets hit. Giroro didn't shout.

"He left when Fuyuki and I were so little. You have no idea what it feels like to not think you're good enough for your father, to know that he left to research some bizarre occult dream instead of raising his two young children with his wife. What was so much better about the occult than me and Fuyuki? Why did the occult take him?" Natsumi's was crying.

"N-nothing was. It wasn't your fault." Now Giroro kinda did want to kill him.

"And now the occult was going to take him again! You were going to capture him. Take him back to your planet. You said not to look for him in his fake letter. You were going to kill him!" Natsumi cried.

Giroro was silent. That was true.

"Mom was sad when he left. But she loved him so she didn't stop him from pursuing his dream." Natsumi recalled. "She got so depressed that she couldn't raise Fuyuki and me properly. She sent Fuyuki to live with grandma for the early parts of his life and I stayed with mom because I was older. At the time I thought it was all dad's fault but then I realized it was the occult and his stupid dream that tore him from his family."

"I think it was kinda your dad's fault-" Giroro frowned.

"He came back and I had what I finally wanted. But you stole it!" Natsumi accused. "You were about to take it away."

 _Poor Natsumi...She was all on her own...Her mother throwing herself into her work and her dad being gone. Her brother with his grandmother..._ Natsumi's father just being around was her way of trying to cope with how unhappy a childhood she had had.

"Natsumi. Natsumi. I would have stopped Kululu. I know that." Giroro swore.

Natsumi stopped shooting. She sniffled, but there was no forgiveness in her eyes. Just anger. "I'm not here to forgive you. I'm here to beat you. If you won't fight me properly- and I know you're holding back, I'll just beat you on my own."

"I'm not holding back." Giroro lied. He was, out of guilt.

"I don't care if it's out of guilt. It won't change what you've done." Natsumi hissed. She shot at Giroro's left eye. He couldn't dodge fast enough.

Despite her movements being worse from her sadness she moved into his blind spot as he was trying to dodge and she punched him.

He smiled to himself. This was the way things were supposed to be. She needed to be the victor. He wished he could have had a fairer battle but she wasn't ready to go all out.

He was prepared to face his punishment.

* * *

Everybody attacked each other as Keroro tried to hide under a desk. Fuyuki just stood still, nothing in the wreckage really touching him.

Finally Fuyuki opened his mouth. "STOP!" He yelled, letting out the most ear shattering yell ever.

That managed to get everybody's attention. They turned to him.

"Are...Are you all right, Fuyuki?" Natsumi asked, worriedly. She couldn't move closer to him, she was too frightened.

She could feel his aura of anger emitting off of him. If he remained like this he was bound to do horrible things.

Everybody just froze in shock from how angry he looked. Nobody was spared from the darkness that circled him.

Fuyuki finally moved. He took a few cumbersome steps towards Keroro. "You disgust me. You're hiding while everybody's fighting over your crimes?"

Keroro swallowed his hands shaking. He had managed to make Fuyuki angry. And when Fuyuki was angry he was a force to be reckoned with. Keroro was frightened.

He turned his head towards Fuyuki but he could feel himself sniffling. _I hurt Fuyuki! I hurt Fuyuki! He's sad!_ He felt terrible. He didn't want Fuyuki to be disappointed in him.

What if Fuyuki remained mad forever? What if he had wrecked their friendship? Keroro wanted to cry and beg for forgiveness. He knew neither of those would matter to Fuyuki though.

Keroro stood up, seeing his platoon's frozen looks waiting for him to make a movement. He had to stand strong as their leader.

 _He'll hate me forever. What can I do to make it up to him?_ Keroro wondered to himself. His mind wasn't in this battle.

He stuck his hands out. "Stand down, platoon." He ordered. "W-we've...W-we've lost this battle." His voice was shaking. "The battle is over. Release Admiral Papa. Release Haru."

Giroro smiled and threw down his gun. "I suppose if our leader is surrendering there's no use fighting his orders."

Dororo threw his sword down happily.

Tamama nodded and everybody else stopped fighting.

Keroro looked at Fuyuki, but he could not see Fuyuki's eyes. Fuyuki was still angry, he knew everybody could see his legs shaking. He was frightened of that anger.

Honestly he saw everybody was. Fuyuki's anger really was the most powerful force on Pekopon.

"Y-you beat me, Master Fuyuki. With your anger. I w-would never want to disappoint my friend." Keroro hurriedly said.

Fuyuki looked down on Keroro as if he was mud. "No friend of mine would kidnap my father." He turned around. "Could someone with arm strength tie them up?"

Despite his easy going line about mocking his own arm strength there was still power in his words.

"I'll do it." Momoka volunteered.

Fuyuki gave her one smile that was like one small ray of blue sky in dark gray clouds. Momoka was just happy that she was exempt from Fuyuki's bad mood and anger.

She quickly dragged Tamama, Giroro and Dororo to a pile around Keroro and tied them up. Saburo threw Kululu in the pile.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! You can have Haru!" Keroro begged. "Please forgive me Fuyuki! Please don't be mad!" He was begging and crying now.

"Keroro. Leave it. We've lost. If our friends are hurt and mad at us you have to experience the consequences too." Giroro told him as he was tied up.

Keroro just cried. He didn't want this. Why did things have to go so far? Why did people have to be hurt?

All he wanted to be was a good platoon leader embraced by Keron more than Kululu. All he wanted was a funny and possibly easy-going interrogation of Haru. Nothing heavy with any threats of violence.

But that was not to be. And now Fuyuki hated him. Was this the last straw would Fuyuki hate him forever?

Seeing as how over-dramatic Fuyuki's anger was, Keroro honestly didn't know. He could.

* * *

The keronians were dragged back to the Hinata House with Haru who had woken up. They were tossed on the ground in front of Aki's feet.

"Haru! You've returned." Aki hugged her husband in a tight embrace. Apparently she had known about what was going on to and was super worried about her husband.

"Why didn't you come to kick our butts too?" Tamama asked, not as sad as the rest of the platoon and still ready to ask questions.

"Mama had to get the coordinates to where your ship was. We had no idea where you were after all." Natsumi hugged her mom and dad.

"I went down to the base since somebody had lured me down there." Aki smiled. "I found Mois and asked her if you frogs had gone anywhere."

"I think we forgot to tell Mois what we were up to." Keroro smiled like Aki's plan couldn't work.

"You did. She had no idea what I was talking about about Haru so she just checked out where the Giroro microchip was to help me out because she didn't even know you were up to something top secret." Aki smiled. "She was a big help in finding your location."

"Ku, ku, ku. God darn it! I never thought that not putting Mois on the same page as us would accidentally give away our location." Kululu cursed.

"….Giroro microchip?" Giroro looked at Kululu very very concerned.

Kululu just laughed and laughed.

"Anyway..." Aki glared at all of them, not having any taste for Giroro and Kululu's petty arguments at the moment. "You kidnapped my husband." She narrowed her eyes, angry at all the frogs as well. "I thought aliens were cool. Perhaps I was wrong...I don't know. I'm feeling rather betrayed. I have some things to think about."

"What do we do about them right now?" Natsumi asked.

"We'll have to hold them prisoner while we decide their punishment." Aki decided kissing Haru's cheek. "Their base has to much access to their alien tech. Fuyuki's room has the Kero ball…."

 _Please not Aki's room. Please not Aki's room…._ Everybody prayed.

"So I suppose Natsumi's room will be what we have to keep them prisoner's in. It's easy to guard."

Natsumi frowned and looked like she wanted to protest as she looked at Kululu and Keroro like she really didn't want them in her room. Eventually she nodded. "Keeping them in a room somewhere will make them easy to guard….I guess my room will have to be the sacrifice."

"I suppose you're the prisoners now instead of me." Haru laughed for a moment at his own joke.

Nobody laughed as the frogs were thrown into Natsumi's room as jail.

They just all sighed hurt that they had hurt their friends.

They had to live out their prison sentence.

* * *

 **Notes and references made this chapter: Natsumi was raised by just her mother, while Fuyuki lived with his grandmother during their childhood. I believe it was mentioned in the episode with Nui but I've seen no other references to it, it was just kind of out of place, shocking and surprising. I'm honestly surprised that Natsumi only mentioned it once in the show cuz that sounds like kinda a big thing.**

 **Originally Aki was not in the battle because she was off dealing with Angol Mois. Then I realized I did not want to write that scene because it was confusing because Angol Mois had very little point in this chapter- since she barely knew what was going on. Thus she made no appearance.**

 **I don't think any of the frogs would have murdered Haru or let Kululu go forth with it. Kululu sure would have tried though.**

 **Please review.**


	4. Unique

**This took several days to write because I'm going to be honest, I got distracted watching tv. I rewatched an anime with my little sister and then watched the lego batman movie and it was so good I read a bunch of fanfiction for that fandom.**

 **But I got back to this!**

 **I hope it's okay and not too disjointed.**

* * *

Keroro put his head on his knees as he hugged them tightly. He didn't want to look at anything. And at this current moment he didn't want to see his platoon mates disapproving looks or disappointment in him. He just wanted to hide away.

They all wanted out of Natsumi's room. But Keroro wasn't making a sound or a peep. Instead he was thinking about Fuyuki and how angry the boy was at him.

He could see that the rooms lights were on and that despite being a prisoner, Giroro was still armed with a gun and polishing it. He seemed to be sitting as quietly and as depressed as Keroro was, but he was keeping himself busy in a very Giroro like way.

Tamama pouted and sighed next to him. "What'cha doing, Giroro?"

Giroro was silent for a moment. "Guarding Kululu. If we have to be prisoners he should be one too, instead of using his stupid little floor panels to escape. I mean he's the one who's majorly at fault for most of this." Giroro pointed out blaming Kululu for the fact Natsumi hated him.

"Ooooh going to blame me for the fact that you've ruined your chances with Natsumi forever? Ku, ku, ku. Sounds like fun. You do know that if I suggested killing someone because they were a disobedient prisoner and they had no relation to Natsumi, you'd probably have stopped anyone from stopping me." Kululu pointed out.

Giroro grit his teeth. "You're horrible. I am _**nothing**_ like you."

"Oh? So you're not a loyal keronian? I had no idea that being a proud keronian soldier was so horrible. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu teased.

Giroro pushed the gun into his face. "I am loyal! I'm just not you."

"By that you mean blood thirsty?" Kululu asked. "You've got blood on your hands. Ku, ku, ku. Don't lie to yourself and say you're better than me. You, Dororo, Keroro, you're all soldiers. And we all know what soldiers do. They kill."

Tamama tilted his head wondering why he wasn't included. Was Kululu thinking his youth meant innocence. He could cause mindless destruction too!

They were all silent from Kululu's words.

"I…." Giroro shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We were beaten and we were prisoner's now. A soldier's duty is not just to follow orders but to follow the laws of war and be honorable once you've been beaten. Being a good prisoner of the code of conduct too."

Kululu scoffed disgusted that he would just give up like that.

Keroro tried to ignore Giroro and Kululu yelling at each other about who was at fault and who wasn't. Instead he focused on the voices coming from outside.

"I'm still ticked that we had to use my room as a holding cell." He could hear Natsumi's voice and her tapping her foot.

"I could make a wooden hut outside if you want, Natsumi." Koyuki offered.

"No. I mean I'm annoyed, but I think Mom was right. My room is the safest to guard. It's the safest place to keep them while we think about if the whole kidnapping my father thing was a serious issue and how to deal with the fact that they almost straight up murdered him." Natsumi's voice was still coated with hurt, but now it sounded like she was trying to stand strong and figure out the best path of justice.

"Uhhh...Natsumi? You do realize that Kululu was the one mostly at fault for that murder thing. I mean sure it sounded like he was making a ton of points to gather the others to his side that stopped them from moving to directly stop him at the current moment, but still...Mostly Kululu's fault." Saburo pointed out.

Natsumi frowned. "A bystander is still guilty."

"She's right." Koyuki agreed. "I learned about it at Natsumi's school. It's called the bystander effect. If someone is stabbed and you do not help because you think someone else is going to help but nobody does because they're thinking the same thing aren't you also guilty of just watching a man be stabbed?""

Saburo was silent. Her psychology and philosophy was right. He sighed, letting her blame the other frogs. "All right...So we going to take guard shifts or something?"

"Yeah, we'll switch between the three of us. Momoka simply doesn't have the time to offer to be a guard and she's a little..." Natsumi sounded like she was trying to come up with the words.

"Weak at times?" Saburo asked.

"Don't tell her I said anything like that. Fuyuki's still fuming so we're the only one who can guard those stupid frogs." Natsumi reminded.

"Are your mom and dad talking about what to do with the keronians? Who's figuring out their punishment?" Koyuki asked.

"Them. I...I didn't want to weigh in on it. It was too stressful." Natsumi confessed.

Keroro stopped listening at that point. All he knew was that Natsumi, Saburo and Koyuki were switching in between themselves to guard them.

He knew he couldn't continue just hiding from his platoon. Keroro drew his head up a bit to see what was going on.

Dororo was in the corner crying as usual. He kept uttering the words "Koyuki hates me." He looked worse than Keroro was feeling.

Tamama looked sad but he was mostly looking at his feet, unsure of what to really do.

Giroro and Kululu continued to argue. Giroro looked like he was sad and mopey that their pekoponian friends hated them, but his sadness usually resulted and appeared as anger. This time it was channeled towards Kululu.

"I still think this whole thing is your fault! The kidnapping, the straight up almost murder. You crossed a line with that." Giroro hissed.

"Ku, ku, ku. Oh yeah? The kidnapping was my fault? Even though the keron military was the one to order us to do it? It was somehow my fault that we weren't smarter about it like us wearing bad disguises that the captain probably made?" Kululu asked.

"It was my fault that the captain's forged note was absolutely terrible?" Kululu asked yet again trying to get Giroro to understand just how stupid he was. His voice was shaking in anger.

"Yes. Yes it was! You never gave us more information on Keron's orders. You never asked more about them. You realized how important these orders were from Keron and you left it up to Keroro to organize the whole spectacle, so he obviously failed and gave us away." Giroro yelled. "He's Keroro!"

"H-hey.." Keroro's voice was a squeak. Did Giroro really think that little of him?

"Well sorry for me thinking that our captain was supposed to...I don't know...LEAD US!" Kululu threw up his hands in anger. "And I didn't tell you much about why we were capturing Haru and the stuff like that because Keron didn't give me any information themselves!"

"...Seriously? They gave you nothing to go off of?" Giroro asked.

"Yeah. Just told me to ask about the aliens he had encountered in his travels. I didn't mention anything about that part though for two reasons, 1. when he encountered us for the first time he mentioned that we were the first aliens he had seen. He could have been lying of course, but he would have played dumb if we asked that specific question. 2. I wanted to have a little bit of information at least over you. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu was just a jerk in the end.

Giroro punched him. He saw Kululu's first point but not his second.

"So because Keron didn't give you any information on why we were questioning Haru, you were mad?" Tamama finally asked. "And because of that you felt like crossing...That line?" He sounded a little disgusted.

Kululu laughed. "Ku, ku, ku. I admit my approach in killing Haru was a bit obtuse. I shouldn't have felt so rushed. Keron did give us orders after all. Should have tortured or something before threatening to kill. Then after that failed I should have killed him. My methods were juvenile."

Giroro stepped on him because he was being bad. He just crushed his face under his foot. There was a crunching sound of bones.

 _Should I intervene? Kululu's obviously getting quite beat up. But...He probably deserves it too._ Keroro recalled. Still Kululu was his platoon member.

That meant it was Keroro's job to stick up for him and be the one to punish him. Not that he had ever successfully punished Kululu in his life. Heck, he was also a victim of Kululu's large pranks, destroying gundam models and moving them out of their spaces.

Kululu had once sold him a model saying it was rare for a super large price but it wasn't even a gundam model.

Keroro remained silent while Giroro punched Kululu. But eventually Dororo's loud wailing broke the silence.

"Stop this guys! We all know who's at fault here!" Dororo's voice was like a whine, and he sounded way madder than usual.

Keroro looked up. _That's right. Dororo is always the voice of reason. He'll probably sort out Giroro and Kululu's issues saying we all took part in the kidnapping. Something wise and grandfatherly._

"Yeah, you tell him, Domomo." Keroro smiled.

"It's Dororo." Dororo frowned. "And I was going to say that this is Keroro's fault." He glared.

"W-whaaaat…?" Keroro gasped.

Dororo put his head in his face, "And now all of our friends are mad at us because of it. Lady Koyuki...Lady Koyuki is angry with me." He cried for a moment into his hands. "I am _sooo_ tired of being blamed for Keroro's messes. This happened all the time when we were kids!" Dororo just bawled his head off.

"Wait, how is this my fault?" Keroro could agree that it was his fault, he just didn't know why it was specifically his. He needed a reason.

"You're the leader! You're supposed to have a final say in if things get violent or not. You had us fight our friends. You made sure that Natsumi and Fuyuki would feel personally attacked by that letter, writing about their father leaving them. And then you dragged the rest of us down with you!" Dororo accused.

Keroro shut up. He slumped and let Dororo yell at him. _He's right. My forgery brought no happiness to anybody. It was a big mistake on my part. I thought it sounded right and made sense, but Fuyuki was incredibly sensitive about the 'his father leaving issue'._ His lips tightened as Dororo continued throwing insults.

"It's childhood all over again. I always take the fall for you! Well no more! Destroying my relationship with Lady Koyuki is too far. I want no more part of you." Dororo yelled.

"Fine. That's fine." Keroro agreed absorbing the insults. He just felt sad. He was sure everybody felt the same way Dororo did. Fuyuki obviously did.

 _Dororo, Fuyuki, Giroro, Kululu, Natsumi. Literally everybody hates me. And I deserve it right now._ Keroro hid his face back in his knees. He didn't want anyone to see the sad expression on his face.

It felt like Dororo yelled for hours. Keroro was sure in reality it was only a half of an hour but who knew with Dororo. He really was letting out all his sadness and every single instance Keroro had wronged him. The anger/trauma switch had been switched and Dororo was ready to talk.

Kululu was watching with some amusement from under Giroro's foot as Giroro continued to step on him, his gun pressed up against Kululu's cheek. Giroro was distracted by anger primarily at Kululu.

Tamama looked like he wanted to do something but sat on the bed wondering what to do. Despite the fact that they were in prison Dororo and Giroro were still armed and had weapons.

Keroro eventually got tired of Dororo's list of Keroro's crimes. He needed a distraction. And what better way to distract himself than with toys?

Keroro brought his head out of his knees and looked around. Natsumi's room was cleaner and more well organized than Fuyuki's room, but it didn't have as many cool things to poke. Most of her valuable possessions were not in fact toys, but CDs and posters with her precious radio. She also had numerous gifts from Giroro on her shelves which she probably wasn't sure where to put. They were all very random or war oriented.

Keroro eventually spotted a weenie level of 'toy'. His eyes locked onto some stuffed animals on the bed. _Not my type of toy at all, but at least it's something. Holding and playing with this should make me feel better and should help me de-stress._

He'd be back to his less guilt feeling self in mere minutes with a toy. Toys sapped all other things about reality out of you. They distracted you from your fears.

He stood up and climbed onto the bed with Tamama.

"Oh, Mr. Sergeant! You've decided to join me on the bed." Tamama smiled. "Did you want to jump on it together?" He smiled. "It's not my idle situation to get closer to Mr. Sergeant, but it is a situation...After all that horrible woman isn't trapped in gay baby jail with us..." Tamama said with a sinister air under his breath. He didn't seem to realize he was talking out loud for that last part.

Giroro sighed annoying most of what Tamama said. He couldn't care less that Tamama was still competing with Angol Mois, even in this situation. He wanted to speak up about this place being gay baby jail, but he really couldn't speak against that argument.

His attention focused on Keroro as Keroro grabbed one of Natsumi's 'toys', her teddy bear. "Stop!" Giroro ordered.

"W-what? Why?" Keroro asked moving the bear around and laughing to himself as he made silly voices. "Is something wrong, Giroro?" He said in a silly voice.

Giroro brought his gun off of Kululu and pointed it at Keroro. "It takes a certain amount of commitment for Natsumi to use her room as our prison. We should respect her and not touch her things." Giroro said. "Touch anything of Natsumi's and I'll bullet you."

Kululu slithered out of under his feet to touch all of her clothes. "Oh look at me! I'm touching your precious Natsumi's socks~ Ku, ku, ku."  
"Kululu, how dare you!" Giroro was about to shoot as Kululu threw one of Natsumi's skirts at Giroro's face.

Giroro was unable to dodge. The skirt touched the cheekbone.

"Well, guess by your own rules you just touched Natsumi's things too. She's going to be so mad. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu laughed.

Giroro screamed. "AUGH! I betrayed Natsumi's trust and touched her skirt!" He pounded his fists against the ground.

"Not like you didn't already betray her trust. She hates you for kidnapping her father. Already screwed up your chances to not even date her, but even be in her life positively. Ku, ku, ku. Blowing up some toy thieves won't magically make her forgive you." Kululu reminded just to be a jerk.

Giroro's eyes were glaring with pure hatred at Kululu for touching Natsumi's stuff, Keroro for the same reason, and at himself for hurting Natsumi.

And when Giroro got angry he took it out on literally everyone by just blasting his gun wildly. "Keroro! How dare you make us do this plan? Why couldn't you have made it that the pekoponians didn't hate us?" He growled ready to shoot.

"Keroro took away something more precious than ever this time. I won't forgive him. It's all his fault!" Dororo yelled.

"You probably should have had a smarter plan, captain. Ku, ku, ku. Your note forgery was so bad." Kululu pointed out.

Keroro dropped the toy on the ground and backed up. They were all yelling at him. What did he do? "I-I'm sorry, guys..."

"Sorry isn't enough." Giroro growled pointing his gun at Keroro. "You may not be able to fix this one. We don't want anything else to do with you-"

"STOP IT!" Tamama let out a loud yell and jumped between Keroro and the oncoming crowd of hate. His arms were extended to defend Keroro.

Giroro put his gun down. After all he had nothing against Tamama at the current moment. "Why? It's his fault." Giroro reminded.

"Keroro has literally been at fault for everything bad that has ever happened in my life." Dororo glared. "Give us one reason to not keep on yelling and expressing our anger."

Tamama frowned. "We're a platoon. We're in this together. It wasn't Mr. Sergeant who ordered us to capture Haru. You're making him into a scapegoat. It would be better to have no scapegoat at all and just stick together. All we have is each other." Tamama reminded. "Anyway I support Mr. Sergeant in whatever he does. He's our captain after all. Keron chose him for a reason and you have to respect that."

Tamama's words got to Giroro and he backed away.

Keroro put a hand on Tamama's shoulder, telling him it was okay to stand down. _Tamama...You didn't abandon me when everybody else was so mad. You aren't mad at me._ He wasn't sure why. Was Tamama just butt kissing to get a higher rank? He did know that Keroro couldn't promote him, right?

Still what Tamama was doing helped Keroro. He hadn't expected anyone to come to his aid. It made him feel surprised and more than anything grateful. Tamama was on his side. He hadn't expected that, but he was so happy.

His platoon mates really listened to Tamama. It was as if they were surprised that someone would come to Keroro's defense too and they decided to give in and listen to him for once. Dororo went back to his corner and Giroro went to his own corner.

Kululu didn't escape the room yet, noticing that to his disappointment Saburo had disconnected his floor panels. He lay on the floor rather bored.

"Sorry, Keroro, I guess...Tamama's right. We're a platoon. Platoons are supposed to stick together. That's true loyalty. I should know the keronian soldiers code of loyalty more than anything." Giroro said his voice muffled due to the fact that he was facing the wall and sitting in the corner.

"That's all right. I've made everybody into a scapegoat loads of times. It would be unrealistic to expect that I'd never be one." Keroro was trying to recover. He knew Giroro, Dororo and Kululu were still mad at him. They just weren't yelling yet.

"When I came to Pekopon, Keron was first in my heart. I would have done anything for our planet. If they had actually ordered us to kill Haru, I might have done it….Yelled at you for following Keron's orders and kidnapping Haru? I would have never done such a thing. You may have screwed up with a bad plan, but you were doing the honorable thing of following Keron's orders." Giroro rambled.

"Then why are you yelling at me now…?" Keroro asked. But he already knew the answer. Giroro had changed since he first came to Pekopon. And that was all thanks to one pekoponian.

Giroro's change had been one of the most substantial that he had watched. Sure, Dororo had changed his name and changed most completely but that had been over the course of months. Dororo had a slow change where he had gotten to know the planet and Koyuki.

Giroro had changed over night. Keroro was still shocked by how that was even possible. Was love at first punch that powerful of an emotion?

"No wonder Natsumi hates me. She definitely hates me now after all." Giroro moped. "I'm still trying to be loyal to Keron, but I'm bullcraping both my jobs." He shook his head. "Keron is supposed to be the most important in my heart but slowly...Natsumi's becoming more and more powerful. I screwed up this battle by putting her above the planet...And the worst thing?" Giroro's rambley existential crisis continued, "The worst thing is I would have done the same thing over again. But I wouldn't even follow Keron's orders this time. I wouldn't risk hurting her."

Keroro didn't know what to say.

"How can I be mad at you for screwing up this plan if I know for a fact if I could redo it I wouldn't even go along with what Keron themselves ordered us to do because it would make a girl sad?" Giroro asked. "I'm the most unloyal soldier there is to Keron."

Keroro stared at Giroro, wishing desperately he could say something to make him feel better. _I know how he feels. I disappointed my friend too. But...There's nothing I can really tell him to help him through his existential crisis._

He knew now that Tamama would be there for him while Fuyuki was mad. But he didn't know who could be there for Giroro or Dororo who were both abandoned by their pekoponian friends.

 _We'll all be here for each other._ Keroro reminded. _That's what the private said. We're a platoon._ He couldn't have Tamama's comfort all to himself.

"It's okay." Keroro tried to comfort. "We all made mistakes. But we're here for each other."

Dororo glared at him for a second. "You said that when we were children too. But it was always your mistakes and you weren't there for me."

Keroro ignored him. He just hoped Giroro and Dororo started feeling better soon.

Kululu ignored Giroro's sad ramblings and existential crisis about Natsumi hating him. It was just lovesick moping as usual after all. It made him pathetic and completely unable to think.

"Ku, you and Dororo both are kind of pathetic to be so focused on the fact that the girl you like is mad at you, instead of thinking about important things like trying to pinpoint what mistakes we made with Haru so that if we repeat the process over again we can do it more successfully." Kululu sounded irritated that they had failed.

He was the only one still thinking about the mission.

Giroro glared at him. He was about to scold him for still thinking of the mission and then he realized that there was no reason to scold him. Kululu was the only one at the moment up to keron's level of professionalism.

Dororo frowned. "I- I don't like her, well I do, like as a friend, but not in the way Giroro feels for N-natsumi." Dororo stuttered.

Kululu ignored him because he didn't have time to deal with Dororo's romance drama. "Besides all of the captain's various mistakes with the note forgery and having a downright terrible plan, I think things went south when you all let him free and started believing he was a psychic." Kululu put his thoughts out there.  
"Can we not talk about this right now?" Giroro sighed. "We're all still moping. Although we won't fight because Tamama made some good points-"

"We still need to capture him and question him. Don't you want to be a good soldier in Keron's eyes? Don't you want to complete our mission and learn what Keron was keeping from us?" Kululu asked.

Giroro was silent. He wanted to be a good soldier but he also didn't want Natsumi to be mad.

"Why do you think Haru was lying about being a psychic?" Tamama asked.

"Ku. Obvious. He said the obvious that you all wanted to hear. That your hearts were filled with love to trick you all into not invading. As I said before you would have realized it was a lie if he had said the same to me." Kululu pointed out. "There's not an ounce of love in my heart."

They all nodded in unison. That was a very true statement.

"I don't think he was lying." Dororo finally spoke up. "About being a psychic, I mean. Haru spent a very long time studying the occult. It's very likely that he mastered the secrets of how to see into someone's true heart through his research. It's a possibility at the very least." Dororo shrugged.

Kululu stared at him. "Everybody knows that Giroro is lovesick. It's as plain as day."

"H-hey! That's not true." Giroro glared.

"You loving the planet is also common knowledge. It's easy enough to see that Tamama's in love too. And the captain's obsessed with toys." Kululu shrugged. "Those are all easy observations. Even a stranger could find it out."

"So...You're saying it's not that hard to fake being a psychic?" Tamama asked. "Hehehe...Maybe I can trick that woman. Tell her that she has a future far away from this planet."

"Priorities. We're discussing Haru right now." Kululu reminded.

Tamama shut up.

Keroro frowned. "But...But if it's so easy to observe us and just be a fake psychic…." Keroro reached up to his head remembering the pain Haru had been in when he had touched him. Had that been faked too? "Why was his answer for me so different? I mean, sure it's clear he just faked it with the toys...But after he touched me and tried to read my mind like he did for the rest of you h-he..." Keroro paused.

"Pretended to be in pain?" Kululu asked.

"I...I don't know if he was pretending." Keroro hugged himself. "He asked me...He didn't seem sure what I was..." He didn't want to repeat it. He still wasn't quite clear as to what Haru was asking about. He didn't understand.

What did Haru think he was?

Kululu was silent for a moment just staring at Keroro. He didn't have an answer for him. He didn't exactly know himself.

Still the mystery didn't press on Kululu's mind nearly as much as it did Keroro's. "Well never mind all that." He quickly brushed it under the rug. "What matters is he was clearly lying about the lovesickness of you three to get you to release him." Kululu pointed at Giroro, Dororo, and Tamama.

Giroro glared and got his guns out. "I'm not lovesick."

"Me neither." Tamama said cracking his knuckles. They were both approaching Kululu ready to beat him out.

Kululu seemed to embrace the fact that he was enticing violence against himself.

"Ummm...I'm not lovesick..." Dororo corrected. "Unless you mean lovesick for the planet! Then yes, of course I am!" Dororo smiled.

"Ku, ku, ku. Yeah, just keep telling yourself you're not on the level of these fools." Kululu grinned. "Mister I'm going to cry in a corner all day about how a certain black haired ninja hates me. Are you sure it's the planet you love so much?"

Dororo took a step back. "Giroro, Tamama. You can beat him up now."

"Thanks Dororo." Giroro smiled. "I'll punch him for you too. Since you're not that into violence."

"Yes, well it seems I unfortunately do not see the violence happening to Kululu right now. I am preoccupied by a pretty bird." Dororo lied obviously. "Punch for two."

Giroro was more than happy to oblige.

Keroro just stood back. _What happened to the platoon sticking together? Is it really that important for lovesick anger squad to get their revenge?_

Probably. It sure looked like it was important to them.

Keroro went back to sitting on the bed as the group beat up Kululu. He was still lost in thought about the subject Kululu had brought up- that Haru had faked being a psychic.

Keroro wasn't too sure there was nothing going on with Haru. "What am I? What did he mean by what am I?" It was still one of his primary thoughts, floating around and buzzing around his head.

 _Why wasn't I just lovesick too like the rest of them if it was all faked? Why did he look in pain?_ Keroro wondered.

"He probably meant you were an idiot." Kululu said in between punches. "You know, like 'oh god this guy is so stupid what is he'? I'd be in shock and hurt from seeing you begging me to give you a psychic reading too. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu responded.

Keroro frowned. So Haru was just insulting him in the end? "It's not that obvious to see I'm an idiot!" He frowned. "I mean I'm not an idiot!"

Everybody stopped punching Kululu and just stared at Keroro. Keroro was very wrong.

* * *

Haru lay on the couch, moaning in pain. He had been saved by his family but parts of his head were still bleeding.

It wasn't that the kidnapping was actually that rough. In fact the keronians had been rather gentle about it and he could probably easily recover from it. However Kululu had electrocuted him several times to knock him out and his body was in considerable pain from that.

Aki held her husband's hand, Fuyuki and Natsumi by his side too.

"Do you know anything about these injuries?" Natsumi asked Fuyuki and her mother. It looked like a bunch of various head injuries, perhaps one puncture wound by the tranquilizer.

"I know it looks bad." Fuyuki could only say the obvious.

"Thanks Mister obvious!" Natsumi growled mostly out of stress and worry. "You're supposed to be the smart one. I can't believe this."

"When have I ever been the smart one?" Fuyuki asked. "I'm the nerd one. You're the one who gets better grades than me."

Natsumi couldn't argue that. Fuyuki was only smart about his specific field of interest. He also was able to make leaps of deductive reasoning in mysteries, but he wasn't medical smart or mathematical.

"I know sports injuries. Some sports have head injuries but none have...Electrocutions." Aki frowned, not sure what to do about this. "I'm considering taking him to the hospital but I'm not exactly sure how to explain what happened."

Natsumi didn't really want to take her father to the hospital. They'd keep him too long and ask too many questions. She tightened her grip on his hand.

"Okay, I brought some heavy duty bandages from the invasion meeting room!" Angol Mois came through the hallway. "Just like you asked. I stole from Giroro's stash so nothing should be bleeding through."

Aki took the bandages quickly and started wrapping them around her husband's forehead.

Angol Mois watched her do so, but had a rather calm expression on her face. Obviously she didn't know Haru so she wasn't as worried but she always radiated with a rather optimistic outlook. And it was bumming Natsumi out.

Natsumi glared at her.

Angol Mois frowned, and looked around, pointing to herself. _Me?_ She wondered. Natsumi was glaring at her? What had she done?

Natsumi's hand tightened into a fist. "D-did...Did you know about it?" She tried to keep calm.

"Natsumi. I already told you this. I don't think Mois had anything to do with it. She seemed quite out of the look and was more than happy to locate where the Keroro platoon's ship had gone." Aki glanced at her daughter only mildly scolding her for the harsh tone.

Angol Mois shook her head. "I'm sorry for what happened to your father. I had no idea what was happening. I guess the platoon didn't include me on this plan. Maybe it wasn't something they thought I could help with and that's why they didn't give me details. I'm sorry he got hurt though."

"You knew it could happen." Natsumi didn't care what Mois said. She just accused. "You knew someday that someone would get hurt from one of **their** invasion plans."

Angol Mois took a step back. She knew why Natsumi was accusing her and getting angry at her. Natsumi didn't have the mental strength to talk to the keronians right now and confront them so Angol Mois- who wasn't actually directly involved with anything, was the closest Natsumi could get to being confrontational.

"I...I didn't know someone would get hurt someday. Uncle was always very innocent about his schemes. They were always rather harmless and kinda dumb to be honest." Angol Mois tried to defend. "They were small scale. That's why they never worked." She reminded.

Natsumi frowned. "But you knew that invasion was the most important thing ever to Giroro and his friends! You never wondered if someone would get hurt? I don't believe that. You spent time helping their invasions. You knew they were aliens. That they would hurt someone if they had to." Natsumi pointed to her father. "We...We all knew they would hurt someone..." She recalled Giroro having his gun.

Really she was thinking of Giroro mostly.

Angol Mois sighed. "I'm sorry that I didn't know about this plan. I should have woken up earlier and gotten information on what was going on. I don't know why they hurt your father, Natsumi." Angol Mois apologized. "But I don't think any of the platoon meant to or would hurt someone- save for Kululu who has never been secretive of that fact that he has the potential to be more than a harmless menace." Mois reminded.

They all frowned. That was very, very true.

"I would hardly call Kululu a harmless menace…." Fuyuki tried not to get involved with Natsumi and Mois fighting.

"Just because the frogs aren't secretive about the fact that they're invaders or cruel and dangerous like Kululu doesn't give them an excuse to kill my father." Natsumi frowned. "Which might I say, Kululu tried to do."

"Well I don't know why he did that." Angol Mois tried to keep herself apologetic while distancing herself from other people's crimes. "But might I remind you that I have nothing to do with this. It's not like he told me ' _hmm Mois I really feel like killing Natsumi's father tomorrow_."

Fuyuki looked up really worried. "Did he say that?"

Angol Mois frowned and did not answer. Her face expressed a look that Fuyuki could only read as _'I'm 75% sure he was joking at the time.'_

They just all frowned at her. They couldn't really blame her for being ignorant.

Natsumi finally cooled down. Angol Mois couldn't change the past or the frogs future.

* * *

The platoon was now no longer arguing. They weren't crying. They were just silent as they all reflected on past actions in the room, leaning against walls and being various different expressions of 'bummed out'.

Keroro knew he wasn't feeling any better than his platoon mates. Heck, all of them were feeling miserable, even the ones who were acting a little stronger like Tamama and Kululu. Tamama didn't like seeing his friends fighting and looking sad and now was under the blankets saying he was in 'blanket town' and Kululu was grumbling about how Keron didn't trust him enough. He was drawing doodles of himself doing what Keroro could only guess as violence against whoever had wronged him- Keroro's father if he remembered correctly.

 _I'm the platoon captain. My job is to cheer them up._ Keroro recalled. It didn't matter how he was feeling. His heart could remain heavy.

He needed to make them feel better, feel like they still meant something.

"Do...Do you all remember how we felt the day we were chosen for this mission on Pekopon?" Keroro knew they might not all have the same feelings in common with him. Some of them experienced sadness more than anger, some were more angry. But pride in their planet was something they all knew.

"Y-yeah. Of course we do. It's a feeling you can't really forget." Giroro replied.

"We were all super proud of ourselves." Keroro smiled. His words felt strong and although they were filled with optimistic lies to trick them all into feeling better he was starting to believe in them. "I felt honored that out of all the keronians on the planet I was chosen as the leader of the recon mission to Pekopon."

They all listened to Keroro reminiscing. It looked like they really needed it, Keroro could read in their faces that their loyalty was wavering a little in the mission and Keron due to their vast number of failures.

Giroro looked to be questioning his loyalties yet again. Dororo's face was still wet with tears, Kululu looked to be trying to hide extreme self-esteem issues about the fact that for some reason Keron didn't trust or believe in him enough to give him the full information on the mission, and Tamama just seemed to be lost in reminiscing.

It was working. They all seemed to be lost in thought remembering happier memories- their own pride when they had been picked for this mission.

"You were all hand-picked to be on this mission by Keron. Keron believed in you. They knew that this mission was hard and they picked all of us for our various skills." Keroro smiled.

"B-but...We keep failing them. We haven't invaded yet. We weren't able to get what they wanted out of Haru." Giroro reminded.

"But we have proven that we're the top platoon time and time again when they send obstacles to take us out of our position. Like the Garuru platoon? We beat them. We are victorious. Keron trusts us. They know we're a good platoon." Keroro smiled.

 _God. I love being charismatic. Sometimes I even convince myself about what I'm saying._ He already felt somewhat cheered up.

Keron knew that they would get the information out of Haru. Even if they did things their way. They believed in them.

"You each bring unique talent to this platoon and only you can do your mission." Keroro tried to continue to boost their self-esteem. "Me, I was picked to be your charismatic leader…."

Giroro rolled his eyes. Dororo laughed. Kululu scoffed.

"Private! You have the unique skill of being able to deal with the front lines. You have strong skills in hand to hand combat and explosions. You may be the first line of offense, but you're also one of our strongest members. You're uniquely special." Keroro complimented.

Tamama grinned from ear to ear. He squealed in the cutest way possible. "Mr. Sergeant complimented me! And he's completely right about all those things!" He rolled around on the bed in pure joy.

Keroro smiled. "Dororo, you're an assassin that can't be spotted. You're very skilled in stealth."

Dororo frowned. "Because people forget about me! But I'll take what I can get." He said with an amount of salt.

"Giroro, you've got an arsenal of weaponry. You're the most skilled in combat and war by far." Keroro complimented.

Giroro grinned as well. "It's true." He agreed.

"And Kululu's good with computers, inventing and engineering, body chemistry, pretty much anything to do with intelligence. He's just an all around super genius." Keroro finished up his statements.

Kululu actually gave a thumbs up. Keroro's speech was even getting to him. "I guess you're not that bad of a captain if you know all that."

"Keron picked us because we're special. Just because the full Keron forces couldn't be with us when invading Pekopon doesn't mean they believe in us any less. We were sent first because they knew we could do this job on our own." Keroro continued his dramatic speech. "We were meant to invade Pekopon. Our planet had faith in us. And we were meant to succeed in anything they believe we will succeed in."

Everybody clapped. The speech made them feel fabulous.

 _I can see it._ Their thoughts were all mostly the same as they looked at Keroro and an imaginary bright light shined behind him. _The Keroro of back then. I see him for just a moment._

Giroro clapped and cried from just Keroro being somewhat inspiring. His standards were very low. All their standards were remarkably low.

Eventually Giroro saluted. "So what do we do now then, Sergeant Keroro?" Giroro asked. "We were chosen by Keron for this mission to interrogate Haru. However we failed and our pekoponian friends are mad. How do we remedy that?"

At this very moment he had complete faith that Keroro had answers.

Keroro thought for a moment. "We did things wrong last time, with capturing Haru."

"Because we didn't wear disguises?" Kululu suggested.

"No, because we were too violent about it. Keron just wants us to ask him a few questions. We all assumed kidnapping was there too, but I...I don't want to kidnap him. Keron believes we can do it." Keroro frowned. "Our plan is to break out of here, apologize to the pekoponians and ask Haru questions non-violently. To not get mad when he doesn't know what we're talking about. Keron believes we can do this. We just have to believe in ourselves too."

Dororo stared at Keroro. He liked the non-violent part of this plan but he wasn't too sure why the pekoponians would forgive them if they tried to question Haru again. "Why will they forgive us?"

"We don't know we will. But we have to try. As long as we do nothing worthy of their anger they should be fine." Keroro explained. "Fuyuki may be horrified by what I did and he might not understand how important it is for us all to obey Keron's orders but...If we don't hurt his dad or separate him from his dad he'll be fine. It's just a sensitive issue."

Everybody gave a slow nod.

They didn't all know if they wanted to risk their friends anger again, but they all wanted to be loyal Keron soldiers. And Keroro was right. All Keron wanted was to question Haru. They just had to be much nicer about it.

"So we break out." Tamama spoke up. "How? It sounds like nothing's guarding the door, meaning likely it's Koyuki. And she's one of the tougher ones! She's got weird voodoo magic."

"Ninja arts." Dororo corrected. "Ninja arts."

Keroro frowned. "Well...There must be a way to get out. We've got assets. Like..." He tried to list their assets.

"Tamama's impacts?" Giroro suggested.

"Sealed by Koyuki's voodoo magic." Tamama frowned. "I won't be able to bellow out an impact for 24 hours."

"Dororo's ninja arts?" Giroro asked.

"Uhhh...That's also been sealed by Lady Koyuki." Dororo frowned. "And I wouldn't use it in this circumstance. I'm glad we've decided on the non-violent and non-kidnapping route, but I don't think this is any closer to the path of forgiveness." He crossed his arms. "What about your guns?"

"...Let's just assume from here on out that all our cool stuff has been sealed by Koyuki, okay?" Giroro threw up his arms in defeat. "My cool guns...I can't summon them."

"Giroro, you've had multiple guns throughout the time we've spent in this room!" Keroro reminded.

Giroro sighed. "Those I brought in. And I used up all the bullets on Kululu."

They all glared at him.

"Well Kululu. You're the only one with useful stuff. What you got?" Keroro asked.

"Nothing. Saburo hacked my floor panel privileges. Ku, ku, ku. Without my panels I can't retrieve inventions. And I can't access my computer panels. I've got my headphones but all they can do is make noise, connect to the radio, other cool things and the most important, do little helicopter things. But none of that will help us escape." Kululu thought for a moment. "Actually I still have my phone. That's an asset."

"What asset does your phone have? I bet you have some cool super genius program that will put this entire house under our control!" Keroro cackled to himself.

"Ku, ku, ku. Nope. All it's got is bubble popping games. My computer does that to the house, not my phone. I didn't trick out my phone." Kululu replied.

Keroro frowned. Even their inventor was useless!

"What about you, Keroro? What assets might you have that aren't sealed?" Giroro asked.

Keroro thought for a moment. He closed his eyes trying to go through his mind a list of assets associated with himself. Finally he figured it out. "Mois! Mois's my asset!"

Kululu looked startled. "You...You can't count that as one of your assets. She's her own person. And she's not here to break us out."

"Y-yeah! You can't have that woman save the day so that you fall even more in love with her!" Tamama cried. He knew Mois would do anything for Keroro and that technically she was his asset, but he didn't want to know that.

Keroro grinned. "But she is part of the platoon's assets. She helps us out all the time. She'd be more than happy to break us out."

"And how are you going to ask her for help?" Tamama asked trying to not make Angol Mois play any role in this. He didn't want her to have any part.

Keroro pointed to Kululu. "Kululu said he has a phone. We'll just text her. I mean as the communications officer that is sort of her thing."

Kululu sighed. He tossed the phone to Keroro. "Fine, but I don't want to drag her down into our problems. She'll listen to you, so you do it."

Keroro opened the phone. "Where's Mois's contact number?"

"You...You haven't memorized it?" Kululu asked. "Ku, ku, ku." He shook his head feeling a little bad for Mois, "It's under sparkly eyed demon. Which I'm 90% sure is her real name."

Keroro clicked under that contact and tried to write a quick text to Angol Mois. He tried very hard to respect Kululu and Mois's privacy by not looking up and reading any of their texts which he noticed mostly consisted of Kululu insulting various platoon mates and gossiping.

" _Hey Mois. It's me, Keroro. The platoon is locked in Natsumi's room. Koyuki and maybe Saburo are guarding the doors. Natsumi probably isn't because she's not being loud and angry. I was wondering if you could break us out? I'd be real happy about it. " _Keroro wrote.

He waited to get a text back. Eventually Mois replied to him. _" Why do you want my help now? You didn't tell me anything about this plan that you were doing recently. You didn't include me on it or ask for any help or advice. You still haven't told me what's going on."_

Keroro sighed. "She's...Kinda ticked that we didn't tell her what was going on…I suppose that's halfway my fault because I didn't wait for her to wake up and join our invasion meeting?"

Kululu looked off to the side. It was all his fault because he was the one who had made sure Mois didn't know. "Tell her we'll explain later."

" _We'll explain what's going on later. Don't worry, nothing violent will happen. Just please...Help us Mois. We don't want to be failures anymore. We want to help Keron. Do it for me, Keroro. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you what was going on." _ Keroro apologized.

" _It's not you I'm mad at Uncle. I kinda expect you to leave me out of plans now. Kululu's the one who usually keeps me informed. " _There was a moment of silence on the other end. _" I'll break you out but only because you asked. And tell Kululu that he should have a reason he didn't include me."_

Keroro handed the phone back to Kululu. "She agreed to help!" Keroro felt victorious.

Kululu frowned. "Oh come on! She was asleep! That was my reason!"

Keroro looked at him.

"Also because she has morals. Okay, so I'm not perfect. I might have specifically 'forgotten' to tell her. It wasn't my brightest move." He sat down. "But as you said, captain...We won't be violent about the Haru interrogation this time. So there's no need to not have Mois in it."

Keroro nodded. They could include Mois now, and hopefully she'd be a worthwhile asset.

Tamama screamed about how terrible it was that that woman was helping.

* * *

She had just reminded Natsumi that she had nothing to do with what the keronians had done. And now here Angol Mois was, getting ready to steal the keys to Natsumi's room from Aki while she wasn't looking.

 _I'm real sorry..._ She knew that didn't make much of a difference since she was still going to do it. She hoped Aki wasn't too mad. Aki had been real kind to her when she had woken her up from inside Kululu's lab and asked her to help locate her husband.

She felt bad for turning her back on her now. The woman had a real motherly charm, but she also didn't want to abandon Keroro who needed her and wanted her to help him. _I never say no when he asks for help._

Aki was leaning down and tending to Haru. Quickly Angol Mois reached over and slipped the keys off of Aki's belt buckle. She felt her hand shaking just a little bit, a moment of guilt.

She had no loyalty to Keron or whatever mission Keroro was trying to follow. All she wanted to do was help the keronians who were imprisoned.

All she wanted to do was help Keroro. But she felt bad that she had to go against her other friends wishes to do that.

Quickly she ran upstairs to where Natsumi's room was. She made sure to hide the keys in her pocket.

Just as Keroro had told her, Koyuki and Saburo were standing outside the door.

"So you can really make my coin always land on it's side when I say heads or tails?" Saburo asked making light chatter with Koyuki.

"Yeah! I can control the wind with a ninja trick." Koyuki nodded. She was about to put her hands in the sign but then noticed Mois. "Oh, Mois!" She waved cheerfully at the girl. "Did you want to help guard Dororo and the others too?"

Angol Mois shook her head. "I just came up to tell you that Natsumi wanted to talk to you about something."

Koyuki smiled. "Thanks!" She ran off, just as Angol Mois had predicted, to talk to Natsumi.

"Fuyuki was looking for you too, Saburo." Angol Mois tried the same trick on Saburo.

Saburo frowned. "Nice try. But I don't want to leave the door unguarded just to talk to my favorite Hinata. That doesn't work on me like it worked on Koyuki." He looked at Angol Mois for a moment staring at her as if to say 'what else you got?'

Angol Mois frowned. She had one method, but she wasn't sure Saburo's ego was that big to make him fall for it. "What's the harm in leaving the door for just a little bit? I mean, yeah the keronians might escape but you'd easily be able to catch them again, right?"

Saburo listened. His glare relaxed as he thought about her words.

"I mean, you're so cool Saburo. So strong. You'd definitely be able to do it even if they did manage to get out while you were talking to Fuyuki. So what's the harm in leaving for just a few moments? You're tougher and smarter than all of them combined!" Angol Mois complimented her eyes sparkling.

Saburo nodded. "You're right...I mean I could catch them again." He started moving away from the door.

 _Flattery. It works all the time on these people with egos like these._ Angol Mois just shook her head to herself. Saburo, Keroro and Kululu were all the same.

Saburo quickly went off and Angol Mois unlocked the door.

The frogs, who had been pressed up against the door waiting for Mois to free them, cheered. They embraced their newfound freedom.

"You did it, Lady Mois!" Keroro clapped.

"Tougher and smarter than all of us combined, huh?...That's not what you really think, right? I mean I'm obviously smarter." Kululu was petty and just thinking of his ego.

Angol Mois rolled her eyes. "It was flattery, Kululu. To get rid of him. It's easy to convince someone to do something if you stroke up their ego a lot."

"….Do I fall for that trick as often?" Kululu had this horrible suspicion that it had been used on him more than once.

Angol Mois gave a curt nod. She was still mad that she hadn't been told what was going on.

"Well, Lady Mois, sorry we don't have time to inform you of what's going on, but we have an Admiral Papa to question so we can be done with this whole thing." Keroro spoke aloud.

Before Angol Mois could protest all of the frogs that she had freed ran past her and down the stairs.

It was Haru time.

* * *

Haru was just now getting up from his injuries. His wounds had stopped bleeding and he was feeling better.

"Admiral Papa! We have a few questions to ask you! And we'll even ask them in interpretive dance if that gets you to answer them for us!" Keroro quickly, leading his platoon, slid down the stairs and declared his desire for knowledge only.

"Interpretive dance? We're going there?" Giroro asked. "I thought we were only going to try to use a lot of the word 'please.'"

"We'll try anything." Keroro replied.

Aki felt around on her belt. "The keys are gone! They must have escaped somehow!"

Natsumi got in front of her father, her fists out. She'd punch them straight back into her room if need be.

Fuyuki glared. He let out a low growl. "Sarge...You came back for him?"

"We won't hurt him or take him from you! I didn't understand how important he was to you before!" Keroro insisted. "Please. Let us do our job and just ask him a few questions."

Haru got to his feet and touched Natsumi and Fuyuki's shoulders. "You don't have to deal with this. Let me solve this problem for once. Let me protect you."

"But the sarge broke free! He's our problem. He was my friend. Let me-" Fuyuki pleaded.

"This is my battle, Fuyuki." Haru stepped forward. "I may not be strong but I'm a smart thinker. I can take care of myself." He glared at the platoon, "I'll fight for my family."

Giroro glanced at Keroro. "What do we do now? We were going to try the non-violent route and all he wants is to fight."

"Well sometimes in anime to understand each other, the characters have to punch each other out before they become friends. Fights bring each other closer." Keroro was unfortunately extremely dumb. "Let's fight him so he understands we mean no harm!"

It was pure anime logic.

Everybody just stared at him. Giroro shrugged eventually. Keroro's advice had led them to okay things before. Might as well try to listen. Tamama nodded.

"Keroro platoon, go! Don't injure Haru too badly. Just get him back on the couch sitting so we can talk!" Keroro ordered.

They all nodded. Quickly Giroro and Dororo ran up first being the fastest of the group. Giroro didn't have all of his weapons but he had more than he had originally said he had. Perhaps he had just lied so that he didn't blow up Natsumi's room.

Keroro was pretty sure he had. He was not out of bullets.

Giroro shot, carefully hoping to only hit Haru's clothing and get him to sit back in the couch. Dororo moved forward to push Haru.

Haru was not strong, but he was smart. And he quickly dodged all of Dororo and Giroro's moves so that they were directed at each other instead of him. Giroro's bullets went straight at Dororo and Dororo's shuriken straight at Giroro.

The two moves hit each other and Giroro and Dororo flew towards the wall.

"TAMAMA IMPACT!" Tamama could not summon his energy beams for a bit because of Koyuki but he could roll himself into a ball and throw himself at Haru.

Haru grabbed a plate from the table and used it as a shield against Tamama. Tamama hit the plate and bounced to the ceiling, not hitting Haru at all.

"Ku, ku, ku. Nice job taking out all our heavy hitters. You're smarter than we first thought. But...I always knew that." Kululu clicked his headphones and his huge amount of wires came out.

Keroro winced. He hoped Kululu kept to the non-violent route.

The wires launched towards Haru and towards his throat as if to knock him out and move him to the couch afterwards.

"Let's just step on them. They're not that high up over there." Natsumi suggested.

"No, this is my fight." Haru reminded. He reached out and before Kululu could move away he grabbed the wires and started tying them together quickly in various boy scout knots.

"AUGH! AUGH!" Kululu just screamed. Not only did it hurt, he hadn't expected them to get tangled.

Haru was tying so quickly that Kululu couldn't get away. Haru looked more like a living weapon, beating all the members of the Keroro platoon on his own than a normal weakling.

Haru eventually let Kululu's wires go and looked around at his handy work. All the members of the Keroro platoon were on the ground heavily breathing, sore and beaten. Keroro was the last one left.

"I...I can fight too..." Keroro finally said. "We just want to ask you some questions."

Haru walked up to him and gave him a light kick to the face.

"Eek!" Keroro fell to the ground. Pekoponian feet were so large!

"You won't hurt me or my family any longer. No alien will." Haru frowned. "You know who has more power now. It's me."

Keroro tried to look up at him. He saw Fuyuki cheering and Aki hugging her husband in pure glee.

"Wow, honey! You were sure strong. I don't remember you ever being that strong before. You must have gotten tougher over your travels." Aki complimented and kissed all over his face.

"You beat them!" Fuyuki cheered.

"Y-yeah. Y-you sure are tough being able to do that all on your own and not wanting us to help you." Natsumi's voice had a hint of bitterness. "You sure protected us." Now the word was really bitter, like she didn't particularly like the fact that he had told her to stand down when she had had good ideas on how to beat the frogs too.

"Of course I did! A father protects his kids. I promise to make sure you both never have to fight again." Haru hugged Natsumi and Fuyuki.

Fuyuki smiled.

"...Great." Natsumi said sarcastically. She glanced a little worriedly at Giroro wondering briefly if he was okay after getting his butt kicked. She didn't feel as satisfied after this battle. There was no longer the feeling of betrayal, but there wasn't a resolution to her anger since she hadn't been allowed to fight.

Keroro wasn't paying attention to Natsumi and her issues though. Instead he was focusing on Haru. _Crap! He's much tougher than I thought. Maybe Keron wanted us to ask him questions because he's really a huge threat to our invasion._

It couldn't be that he was tougher than Aki. They didn't need a fourth Hinata as their obstacle. Keroro tried to get up onto his feet desperately.

Things couldn't end like this. Not after his rousing speech about how Keron believed in them.

Angol Mois headed down the stairs to see what the Keroro platoon was actually planning. She peered down to see what was happening.

"H-haru...We won't let you defeat us. We're proud warriors of Keron." Keroro actually used his name.

Haru stepped on Keroro's body again. "Don't ever bother try to hurt my family again."

Any normal person would know that Haru was about to step on Keroro or give him the lightest of kicks. But Angol Mois was not a normal person, she was just someone who knew nothing about what was going on who had walked in on a dramatic scene with no context.

She didn't know Haru very well. She didn't know what this serious conversation was about. But to her it sounded like one of Keroro's weird animes where the hero was going to do the finishing blow on a villain.

 _Oh no! Haru's getting ready to kill Uncle!_ Angol Mois decided on the spur of the moment. She ran down, letting out a large scream. "NOOO! Don't do it!"

All their heads turned to Angol Mois.

"M-mois? Oh. You must have been the one to steal my keys." Aki frowned with severe motherly disappointment. "I had hoped you weren't involved with this, but I guess you do fly around the bad crowd."

"Mois!" Natsumi was very very mad. Angol Mois had helped the frogs in the end anyway!

Angol Mois bent down to the keronians. She looked at Tamama who was the nearest.

"D-don't touch me." He gasped out.

Angol Mois assumed this was because he was in so much pain. After all, they were all horribly injured. An awful fight must have happened. "Don't worry. I'll help you, Tamama." She vowed.

Haru frowned. "Get out of the way." He demanded. "I don't want them to hurt anyone else again. I don't want you getting caught up in this."

Angol Mois stood up and looked Haru, the strange Hinata that she knew nothing about, straight in the eye. _So he does intend to end their lives or stop their mayhem somehow?_ It sounded awfully serious.

And she wasn't just going to stand back and let them get their (probably rightful) punishments. She would stand up for the Keroro platoon.

"I'm not uninvolved in this. I'm part of the Keroro platoon too!" Angol Mois pouted. "I'll risk the pekoponians anger if it protects them. I'll fight for my friends and my Uncle!"

Before Haru could stop her and plead for her to not, she transformed into her angolian attire before her eyes her pekoponian disguise dissolving. Her spear was in her hands in a more defensive stance verses her usual destructive one.

Haru looked shocked as the disguise evaporated. He took a startled step back, babbling and stuttering a beginning of a word which sounded like it was some profanity.

"I can deal with this-" Natsumi volunteered.

"YOU'RE AN ANGOLIAN?" Haru finally yelled.

Fuyuki looked at him a little confused. "How...How can you recognize that? Hold up, how do you know what an angolian is?"

"What I'm mostly confused about is how you know what an angolian is but you didn't draw the conclusion that I was one when my name is **Angol** Mois." Angol Mois frowned. She was pretty sure she had mentioned her extended lifespan too.

"I knew you were some sort of alien. Just not a freakin angolian!" Haru's voice was on the edge of panicky. "This is bad. Angolians only show up when planets are marked for destruction...Oh god. Oh god..We're all going to die!" He started hyperventilating.

"First of all, not true. I'm sure we can go on vacation places." Angol Mois frowned but she smiled after a second. "And second, yes! Finally someone gets it! I love it when someone recognizes that an angolian's job is to destroy planets instead of just forgetting that she's an alien and treating her normal." She glanced at Natsumi and Fuyuki.

Natsumi frowned. Now was not the time.

"I thought this place was safe!" Haru screamed.

Angol Mois did not correct him that it probably was. She just held her spear and stood strong. She still had a job to protect the keronians.

Haru continued screaming for a moment, everyone else stood silently. But as their own silence continued they began to hear more sounds coming from Haru's own body.

It wasn't just screaming. It was the distinct sound of buzzing.

"D-dad..?" Fuyuki was the closest to his father. He was still kind of hugging his arm wishing to celebrate a victory over the frogs. His body was shivering.

He hated the sound of buzzing. Fuyuki was more than anything afraid of insects. But he didn't let go because his father was screaming.

His father wasn't moving away from the spot he was standing in, but his arms did seem to be flailing or moving ever so slightly.

When everybody finally looked closer at it, they could notice what was happening to his arms. In a truly horrifying moment that might never clear from any of their minds again, eggs were hatching from his arms. Larvae were worming out of his arms, along with fully grown insects biting their way through his skin, or puncturing it with their heads.

They burst through it as if they were sprouts and he was the soil.  
Fuyuki screamed. He finally let go of his father and fell to the ground.

More and more flies erupted from Haru's skin, the skin healing almost magically as soon as one clawed its way through. Then another one would claw through. Soon the air was thick with flies as they continuously erupted from Haru's body.

Nobody could look away. It was true eldritch horror, the most disgusting and gruesome sight that anybody had ever seen. How had that many bugs lived in one man's body? Nobody knew but someone they had.

They all buzzed in the air. And suddenly the group realized that the buzzing could be heard in their minds and not just their ears. The buzzing sounded almost like telepathic words.

" _The planet is doomed! Doomed! Doomed! It's going to die!"_

" _We have to find safety. Quickly. Quickly!"_

" _We have to warn our people. Go to the others."_

" _We'll all die here. We have to go!"_

" _Bob said that there was a reason there were so many earthquakes in the most recent ears. But I never listened."_

They were all various panicked statements. It was becoming more and more apparent that Haru's screaming was actually the flies screaming and worry.

Fuyuki curled into a tiny ball hoping to be as small as possible so that the bugs wouldn't touch him. He was shivering and terrified. Those had been in his father? The father he had been loving and trying to protect?

The only one who wasn't in pure shock and frozen to the ground was Giroro. He quickly grabbed a fly before it could fly out of an open window. "What is this? I don't think that many pekoponian bugs can live in a person." He held his prisoner tightly in his hands.

All of the flies were finally out of Haru. Haru looked desperately at Giroro. He felt weak after everything had left him, his arms still covered in broken bug egg shells. "P-please.." Haru uttered a weak please.

Giroro looked at him.

"Please...Let it go." Haru begged.

Giroro looked surprised. "Why? Wasn't it living as a parasite inside of you?"

"They...They are my f-friends..." Haru weakly confessed. "They never hurt me. They never would hurt me."

Giroro looked confused. _I don't understand why he would defend something that was living inside of him._ Luckily Natsumi had the same thought.

"I don't understand how they didn't hurt you if they were living inside of you!" Natsumi finally spoke up, covering her mouth from disgust. She looked nauseous. "Squash it, Giroro." She requested.

Giroro's grip tightened on it.

"No, wait, Stop!" Haru begged.

Giroro's grip lightened. He wanted Natsumi to have the full explanation before he decided what to do with it.

"They...They aren't normal bugs." Haru tried to explain, "T-they're an ancient race of flies. A mythical alien. I was researching them on my travels and eventually I found them and we became friends. They're connected to everything occult in this world so of course I loved them. But we truly bonded. With them I was never alone. With me, I could protect them. So we entered a symbiotic relationship. I **treasured** them, Natsumi. _**More** _ than anything."

"It sounds like they were kind of your alien friends like Fuyuki's bonded onto the frogs." Aki observed, disgusted by the flies herself but trying to make things a bit easier on Natsumi and Fuyuki. "Fuyuki, Natsumi. You both have alien friends. Your father's just the same way."

Natsumi looked down at her father. He looked so much weaker than usual. But his eyes were filled with love and worry for his friends.

She could see that he truly treasured them. _Maybe more than me and Fuyuki. But...He still loves them._ Natsumi tried not to feel hurt.

"Giroro...Release it." She requested.

Giroro looked at Haru. He didn't believe a word of bull crap that man said about these obviously parasitic creatures being his friends. Giroro glanced at Natsumi who had a look of understanding and pity as she looked down at her father. _He just said he treasured this thing most in the world! Even more than his own children probably._ This guy was a crap man.

Still, he didn't care about Haru's feelings. It was Natsumi's feelings that Giroro cared about. And she could choose who she wished to forgive and who she didn't want to forgive. That was why she might never forgive Giroro but Giroro would be okay with that. It was Natsumi's choice.

He opened up his hand and let the fly go like Natsumi wanted. Giroro smiled at Natsumi.

Natsumi gave him a soft smile back. And in the moment, Giroro knew that despite what had happened the previous day she forgave him. Because he had listened to her and stood by her side.

Giroro, for once in his life felt like he had made the right choice.

Haru smiled. "T-thank you." And then he collapsed.

Everybody just kinda stared at him.

* * *

Keroro was so confused. Fuyuki wasn't sending any of the frogs back upstairs. Everybody was still kind of in shock from the fly thing.

"W-what was that? Mythical alien? I've never heard of anything like that!" Keroro yelled out loud. He was just so confused.

Those things were gross, even for aliens too. Was that the thing that keron had wanted them to question Haru about?

Kululu frowned. "Ku, ku, ku. Yeah...I mean it doesn't bother me too much that _you've_ never heard about it. What bothers me is that even I don't know what those things are. I can't find any information in any documents online or anywhere." Kululu was looking on his computer.

He didn't like to not be the one with information. How could he be an intelligence officer like this?

"Since the information about these fly things seem to be pretty non-existent we can only deduce that that's what Keron wanted us to question Haru about." Kululu deduced. "He might not answer any questions but we can tell Keron what we found out already."

Perhaps they'd actually give them information this time.

Keroro nodded. He noticed that the Hinatas weren't moving to imprison them. Fuyuki didn't even seem mad, he just seemed very frightened, rocking back and forth.

Keroro helped Tamama up to his feet. "Let's go downstairs and to contact the Keron army." Keroro decided.

They all nodded, listening to Keroro's orders.

They quickly went downstairs to the base to transmit a message to Keron.

"H-hey!" Keroro didn't know if the flies were really what Keron was looking for, but it was the best he could guess at. He saluted as he saw the colonel on the other side of the screen.

"Sergeant Keroro. Have you done what we ordered?" The colonel asked. There was a bunch of higher ups of the Keron army behind him.

Keroro nodded. "Umm...We're not sure if this is what you're looking for, but..." Keroro tried not to sound like an idiot. "The pekoponian Haru Hinata started screaming randomly during a point in our interrogation. Suddenly a bunch of flies erupted from his body and fled. He said they were his friends and a mythical alien connected to the occult here?" Keroro's voice was skeptical as he explained what they had seen.

The colonel's eyes widened. "How many flies?"

"Over millions." Tamama spoke up.

There was chattering among the keronians at the other end.

"Fabulous! You've done a fabulous job!" The colonel congratulated. "I didn't expect they were inside of him! I just thought he had met them directly." He confirmed that that was in fact what he was looking for.

Keroro's eyes widened. He was still confused. Why were flies so important?

All of the keronians looked ecstatic as they chattered among themselves. "We've finally located them!" They would say.

"Victory is almost ours. And it tastes so sweet." As they continued to celebrate Keroro just got more and more confused.

The colonel continued trying to look professional despite the fact that he was smiling too. "Listen Keroro Platoon, it is now your number one mission to locate more of those flies. To find their location. This is more important than the invasion by far."

Keroro saluted. "Yes sir!" He was confused why the invasion wasn't as important anymore. He didn't know if he had the right to ask though.

Luckily Kululu was the one to question things and speak up, feeling entitled to information. "So what are these flies? Why are they so important? Ku, ku, ku. If we're tracking them I think we have a right to know."

The colonel frowned not liking Kululu's tone. He glanced at Keroro as if he suspected Keroro probably deserved the information, but Kululu might not have a right to it. He sighed. Kululu made a good point though.

"Those flies are known as the flyians. They are something we've been looking for a while. Long ago eating the flyians brought us to a great age of invading. We can only evolve and advance from eating them." The colonel reluctantly told them. "Unfortunately they fled so we haven't been able to progress since then."

"Was information about them top secret? Is that why we weren't prepared properly for this interrogate Haru mission?" Dororo spoke up.

The colonel didn't hear him.

Tamama repeated Dororo's question so that the colonel could hear.

"Yes, the information was top secret. We didn't want people who hadn't proven themselves to feel like their efforts in advancing society was futile without the flyians. We didn't want them to start desiring something that they might never have." The colonel explained. "But you've now proven yourself. The Keroro Platoon now has access to some of Keron's top secret ancient history."

Everybody smiled. Even Kululu seemed to have an almost childish and proud grin on his face instead of his usual sinister smile.

"The info was all I wanted. Glad to know that locating your bugs finally got me the respect I should have had." Kululu tried to play it cool, but really he was happy to finally be included and not be treated as someone lesser.

"Well, we all want Keron to be strong! So we'll try our hardest to locate the flyians!" Giroro was all ready to make his planet proud.

"Yeah! We'll make you proud!" Tamama smiled.

"As long as it's not hurting this beautiful planet of Pekopon, I will lend my aid. And those flies looked...horrible in Haru." Dororo frowned.

"We'll do a great job." Keroro smiled.

"We know you will. Because you're the amazing Keroro platoon that we hand picked specially for this job. Each of you has unique talents." The colonel told them.

"And Keron has utter faith in you and pride."

They soaked up those words happily. Their planet believing in them and being proud of them was all they had ever wanted.

* * *

The flyians gathered in the darkness of a forest where they would have a peaceful amount of silence. The fear was beginning to fade away.

" _The planet may be doomed. But I do not think we should abandon it."_ They seemed to speak as a whole with this sentiment.

They had wished to abandon the planet for their own safety a few hours ago, but that had only been the panic talking they decided.

" _Even if an angolian has marked this planet for destruction this planet has been good to us."_

" _Yes, the food has been good here. **The life energy of the pekoponians** has been delicious."_

" _This is our home now. We have made this into our home."_ They decided.

" _We have grown strong. Let us use our strength to fight for this planet to protect it from destruction."_ The flyians decided.

Happy buzzing was the answer to that proposition. Their goal had been decided.

They would fight to protect the planet they loved. They would survive.

Pekopon would not be destroyed.

* * *

 **Kululu's been an extreme jerk in this fic. To get the plot moving he has to make a variety of mistakes. Even if he's my second favorite he's gotta suffer in some of these stories. Sorry Kululu.**

 **I feel like Gironatsu is kinda taking over again. It's just that it's one of Giroro's primary motives, character wise...**

 **Please review. Even if it's a review on mobile of that you liked it, that's fine! I would love to hear your thoughts.**


	5. Hook, Line, and Sinker

**So here's the next chapter. Sorry things have been going slow, I got stressed out because I'm getting surgery in two weeks. It won't cure my disease but it might make things better. I just have never had a surgery before so I'm a bit nervous.**

 **Also there will be recovery time so I might not be updating a lot in July. Follow for updates.**

 **Umm...yeah, that's it for author's notes. Basically just sickness has been keeping me from updating. Sorry.**

* * *

They were all filled with a sense of new pride. Instead of logging off or hanging up the colonel had spent hours on the line with them along with most of the council complimenting them and praising them on a job well done.

He told them each about what amazing qualities they had and why they could capture the flies. His speech, due to his actual militaristic power, inspired them even more than Keroro's.

The Keroro platoon were humming to themselves and in an awfully good mood after such a good meeting.

Natsumi approached them in the hallway. She didn't care about the fact that they were no longer being guarded, or care to ask about their good mood. Instead she looked confused, but ready to take the confusion into her own hands. She would find out the answers to this mystery.

"Frogs." She addressed.

"What do you want lady Natsumi?" Keroro asked.

Her arms hung to her side. "I don't want to fight. I just want to know what's going on. I want answers. What were those flies doing living inside of my fath- Haru." Natsumi's voice was a little bit cold.

Keroro looked at her confused. It was a legitimate question.

Giroro noticed her newfound confusion at using her father's title or his name. He didn't point it out. "The flyians apparently bring strength to the keronians. They brought us to the current invader age that we're in. We get stronger from eating them. That's what they are. A mythical legendary alien that we're supposed to find." Giroro explained.

"I didn't ask yet what they were, but thank you." Natsumi nodded. "I asked why they were in Haru." She wasn't glaring at the frogs. She knew it wasn't their fault.

They were all silent. They themselves didn't know the answer to that question.

"Why were they in him?" Keroro asked turning to Kululu who he assumed had all the answers. "More importantly why are they on Pekopon."

Kululu shrugged. "I assume they fled here. But...Unfortunately that's all I know. Tch." He didn't sound happy about yet again not having all the answers.

It was like Kululu had the outer edges of a puzzle but was still missing some pieces to make it a complete picture. And not being able to finish a puzzle was infuriating.

"I think I'm going to go try to go look up more about these creatures now that Keron has given us some access to their military secrets." Kululu waved his hand. "I don't have the answers to those questions yet." He walked off to do some research.

 _I'm happy that they finally told us, or more specifically me what was going on. But I still have the nagging feeling that I'm left out of the loop about something. Some things don't make sense and don't fit together._ And Kululu was determined to make them all fit.

So he left.

Keroro just frowned now that the only one with partial answers and deductive reasoning was gone. "We're sorry, lady Natsumi. We don't really know much else! We would tell you if we could."

"We're sorry for the whole kidnapping thing." Giroro apologized. "We were following Keron's orders I suppose to try to get those flies. We didn't know about them before hand, but we'd love to work with you instead of against you in this one mission."

Natsumi shook her head. "I'm no longer that mad at you. I mean you wanted to interrogate him about a secret he wouldn't even tell us. I think it just went too far thanks to Kululu."

Giroro sighed in relief. He was glad Natsumi had forgiven him.

"I think most of us agree about that." Natsumi tapped her foot. "Except maybe Fuyuki. He hasn't been moving much since the...flies erupted from our father's body. He's more afraid of bugs than I am. Don't know how he feels."

"I...I hope Master Fuyuki is okay...I hope he's not too mad at me." Keroro winced.

"I don't see why he should be, anymore." Natsumi sighed. "I mean you capturing and kidnapping people is kind of expected of you guys now. You try to do it to us about once a week. But Haru..." She was quiet for a moment. "I don't understand it. No, I don't like it that those things were living in his skin. Even Mom is sickened."

"Maybe they're a parasite?" Dororo suggested. "Perhaps it isn't Master Haru's fault."

"No. He clearly knew about them. And they were clearly alive. Didn't you hear them buzzing and screaming in your head?" Natsumi asked, covering her ears trying to erase the memory. "They were alive and sentient and he...He never told us about them. He would have hid them forever from his own family."

"I'm sure he just didn't want you to be grossed out and wanted to protect you." Giroro tried to make Natsumi feel better.

"I don't need protection." Natsumi frowned. "I've done absolutely fine in my life without him in it. I can handle seeing aliens better than him, better than Fuyuki even because I don't nerd out and I treat them how they should be treated based on what they're doing. If they threaten me I attack. If they act like a normal person like Mois I treat them like a normal person. There was no reason not to tell me."

"But...You don't exactly like these flies, remember, lady Natsumi?" Keroro reminded.

"Of course I don't really! First off they're gross and second off I don't understand them. I don't understand why Haru didn't tell us about them. Didn't trust us to try to explain. Heck, you're explaining more about them than he did. You're keeping less secrets from me than my own father." Natsumi sounded angry.

They all had the sinking suspicion that Natsumi was not as angry with them anymore because she could only handle being furious with one thing at a time. And at this moment it was her father.

"I'm sorry that he doesn't trust you enough..." Giroro didn't want to excuse what Natsumi's father was doing, but he also didn't want her to fight too much with her family.

Still she could decide how she felt on her own. So he decided not to get involved with her feelings.

"Can I even trust him? Is he my father or is he just Haru? I barely know the guy. He could be some weird alien for all I know too. He could be a giant fly pretending to be a human himself! I could be half-alien!" Natsumi cried. "Does he just get along with aliens better than his own family or is he just as weird and alien as you guys? I don't know. I don't know a thing about him."

Natsumi was obviously distraught.

Giroro gently reached up hesitantly to pat her hand as if to comfort her. Natsumi let him.

"All I know is that he treasures those aliens more than me. And that's the only thing I know about my own father." Natsumi confessed

"Sometimes...Newfound friendships and relationships become very important to us, so much so that we'll fight to protect them even against our own family. We still value our family not wanting to rank them among each other, but we want to protect something precious." Giroro tried to explain trying to relate it to his fight with Garuru to help Natsumi.

"I don't think Haru wants to kiss and date a fly. Unless...He does?" Tamama was shocked. "Gross."

Natsumi tried not to cry in utter disgust that she was related to someone who wanted to kiss a fly.

"Master Natsumi..." Keroro spoke up. "We're going to capture those flies. We wanted to tell you that we've been given this important mission. Keron trusts us. Your father might become our enemy. But I'm sure while trying to capture the flies you'll get your answer."

Natsumi nodded. Keroro's words oddly enough helped.

Keroro looked at his platoon. "We'll capture the flies. For us, for the Hinatas, and for Keron. Everybody has faith and believes in us."

All of the platoon smiled at him.

* * *

"Ummm...Mister Colonel..." Agugu hated speaking up especially during something so important but he had too many questions.

The colonel was in the docking bay of several keronian ships, along with one of the largest ships for council members. He was organizing troops of soldiers.

"Yes head to bay A. We don't have very long to do this. We're going to try to arrive with complete speed!" He spun around. "Agugu. I know you're related to the emperor but I do not have time to speak to you right now. This might be the most important moment of my career."

"Don't worry! I got time." The Demon Sergeant popped out from beside the colonel's side. "Did you need something?"

"Why are we leaving the fate of all the flyians in the hands of only five keronians? I mean even if they're the most amazing keronians around- which it sounded like they were by the way you made them sound, it still risks a huge loss of the flyians. I doubt they'll be able to catch them. Shouldn't we send our armies to retrieve the flyians instead of leaving it all up to the Keroro platoon?" Agugu asked.

The Demon sergeant frowned. "Well see here, I know the Keroro platoon better than anyone here..."

"I know. Your son is in it, correct?" Agugu asked. "He's the leader." Agugu instantly regretted bad-mouthing the Keroro platoon.

The colonel stopped ordering people around for a moment. "We are going to Pekopon." He said correcting Agugu's impressions. "I suppose since you still don't fully comprehend the true importance of the flies you didn't realize that what we told the Keroro platoon was a lie."

"We can't leave it just in their hands." The Demon Sergeant shook his head. "However we've got to make the flyians believe that they've got a chance at victory before we arrive so that they don't flee again. So we told the Keroro platoon we had complete and utter faith in them to buy ourselves time."

"That's where we're going and what we're preparing for." The colonel explained. "The capture of the flyians. After all this time."

Agugu nodded finally understanding.

Despite all their praise there was absolutely no faith in the Keroro platoon.

That's why even though they were on the planet of Pekopon, they knew even less about the flyians than he did.

This mission was too important to risk failure. So the Keroro platoon could be nothing more than something to buy a little time.

They were not important in the long run.

* * *

Kululu may have had only some of the pass codes and authorization codes to Keronian top secret information, but now he knew what he was looking for. He could narrow down his search to gather more information on the flyians.

It took a while. He preferred to study from primary documents instead of just file reports and yet again it took another hour or so to learn another long dead language so he could translate some ancient texts, but it hadn't been the first time he had done something like that.

Kululu eventually went back upstairs to his platoon to tell them what he had found. "Well, the Keron government wasn't kidding themselves when they said this was top secret information. It was all very hard to research. Ku, ku, ku. I even had to translate some long dead languages to research some ancient texts." Kululu waited for his platoon mates to be impressed.

None of them looked too impressed. Apparently resurrecting a dead language was just average for Kululu.

Kululu frowned. "I learned that the flyians were indeed a pivotal part of Keronian society a long time ago. Everything checks out with what the military told us. After we hunted them to near extinction they fled."

"Probably to Pekopon." Giroro deduced.

Kululu nodded. "Hearing about them sparks a natural greed and desire in keronians to eat them. So because of that they're kept a secret. Not only that our society would become melancholy and wouldn't ever try to do anything if they realized that we could never progress into a higher age without these creatures. Ku, ku, ku. It's kind of...Worrisome in a way. Imagine if you realized that in the end all your actions and everything you tried to do and made made absolutely no impact on the world because you didn't eat some super powered bug." Kululu shrugged trying to play off that this made him worried too. Like his inventions were really nothing.

Keroro nodded. _I know this fear well. Even without knowing about the flies I worried about that. That I would have no point and make no impact. Now it's even worse._ He was kinda glad that his fears were legitimate at least.

"Most keronians unless they display emotional maturity, would feel their future is bleak without these creatures. I assume even the keronians who knew were obsessed with finding them because deep down things felt bleak to them. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu now understood why most keronians were kept in the dark about this.

Still didn't mean he liked himself being kept in the dark. He wanted all the knowledge.

"So Keron wants to expand, but it's impossible for us without these flies?" Tamama asked. "When do you think the military started suspecting Haru had a connection to them? Did they not tell us about them because they didn't want to risk being wrong?"

Kululu sat down, thinking for a minute. He didn't have an answer, but now that he knew more he could speculate and make a theory. "I don't know why they thought Haru had a connection. I don't know if they knew Pekopon had the flies all along." He waved his hand dismissively. "I do suspect that if they did think Pekopon had the flies that they wouldn't have told us so that we weren't specifically looking for them."

"That sounds dumb. How else could we have found them?" Giroro asked.

"Ku, ku, ku. If we weren't looking for them then the flyians wouldn't have felt any need to flee. If they had been on this planet and keronians were sent here to look for them then they probably would have fled immediately." Kululu speculated. "Perhaps we were purposefully kept in the dark despite this planet possibly having speculations of a connection to the flies to help lure out the flyians because they thought they were safe or wanted revenge on the keronians who had eaten them in their past."

"So...You're saying that we might have been bait." Dororo looked like he was frowning. "In a way."

"Eh, it's just a theory. Who knows when Keron realized that there were flyians here after all or thought there might be. They most likely didn't want to scare them away. We definitely would have scared them while invading if we had two missions." Kululu pointed out. "Ku, ku, ku."

Natsumi and Fuyuki were sitting on the couch, listening to Kululu talk. Fuyuki was still shaking, Natsumi letting him lean on her shoulder.

She had thought it would help Fuyuki if he learned more about the situation. He was still in a state of shock and fear.

"We know the true reason now though that Haru wanted to protect his friends and got so scared when Giroro grabbed one." Kululu spoke up. "I bet he thought Giroro would stuff it in his mouth and eat it."

"Gross. Look, I know it makes us stronger now, but...Umm...Other keronians can have them before me...Also it was still alive! I wasn't just going to shove it in my mouth!" Giroro frowned.

"I think he was referring to the fact that we used to eat flyians in the past." Dororo explained. "That was why Haru was afraid. Not because you specifically look like the type to shove bugs in your mouth."

"I'm still ticked that you were able to get more information than Haru. And that you freakin actually told us, unlike him!" Natsumi pointed out. "Right, Fuyuki?" She bumped him hoping to shake him out of his stupor.

Fuyuki looked up actually responding. "O-oh? Y-yeah. I...I don't know why he didn't t-tell us either. I mean I thought we shared our knowledge of the occult together." Fuyuki sounded hurt but more than ever he sounded like he didn't know what to feel or do.

He didn't look like he knew. Lots of his beliefs and dreams were shattering around him.

Keroro frowned. He knew there was a lot of confusion going on in everyone's minds. Fuyuki was confused because he didn't know how to feel about his father or the flyians. His platoon was confused as to when Keron was planning to tell them anything about what they suspected about this planet.

Keroro didn't have the brain space to be confused at the moment though. That required too much thought. And he was simple minded. "Don't worry, Fuyuki and Natsumi and everybody! We'll catch the flyians. We don't need answers." Keroro insisted.

"How will catching them fix anything?" Fuyuki asked.

Keroro was glad Fuyuki was talking to him again. Although Fuyuki still looked like he was pale and shaking mostly thinking about how his father had had bugs living inside o him.

"Well, catching them will make your father give you all the answers that you want and it's all we need to do at the moment. We can be on the same side right now because our main task isn't invasion for once. It's catching the flies. All we have to do is focus on this one task. Keron will be proud of us. We'll be victories and we can all celebrate working together." Keroro cheered to himself.

Fuyuki shouldn't have a problem with Keroro trying to capture an alien bug. Fuyuki hated bugs so now Fuyuki might not be mad.

Giroro, Dororo and Tamama smiled behind Keroro. They didn't think this was nearly as much of a simple task as he did but reminding them that Keron was going to be proud helped them focus on what really mattered. Not the need for answers but the task they had been assigned.

"W-wait...We'll be on the same side?" That seemed to snap Fuyuki into reality somewhat. "You aren't focusing on the invasion right now?"

Keroro nodded cheerfully. "Yep! Things will go back to normal once we catch the flyians but right now catching them is our top priority over the invasion." Keroro frowned. "I am a little confused about that." He confessed. "I mean our main purpose on this planet is to invade. These creatures must be super important if Keron is halting the invasion for even a little bit..."

Kululu wasn't really talking but his spirals widened on his glasses as if he was getting some sort of wild theory from Keroro's words. "Wait a minute..."

"Think of something?" Dororo asked.

"Yeah...I just got a wild theory..." Kululu admitted. He looked as if he was possibly thinking it over as if he didn't really want to suspect it or think it.

The platoon waited for him to finish his statement anyway.

"Ku...If these flyians were so important, do you think invasion was ever our primary goal here? Was it really all that important? I mean our so called important invasion is being halted for these aliens we've never heard of before." Kululu didn't sound like he liked thinking of this theory.

Keroro shook his head. "No way. Don't even suggest weird things like our invasion wasn't important or our primary goal. I mean we all have skills specifically for invasion. And if our goal was to catch these flyians we would have known about them and been looking for them before any of this."

"Y-yeah. And we're proud invaders!" Giroro reminded. "There's no way invasion was only one of primary goal."

"I...I don't know if it was even a goal. Ku." Kululu frowned. "I mean it's just a theory, but there's always been something that bugged me about our invasion."

Keroro just crossed his arms. "Kululu. Stop. Wild theorizing like this won't help anyone. Yourself included. It's just going to make us all miserable."

However Kululu didn't stop. The truth, answers and making himself less confused was just too important to him. Instead he sauntered over to Angol Mois who was bringing over various fruit slices from the kitchen for Tamama.

"I really do think it would help to get some fruits in your diet. And I thought it would help your meeting if you had some snacks!" She honestly didn't really care about all the information about the fly creatures living inside Haru so she had only been half-listening to the conversation from the other room.

"Yo, Mois." Kululu waved his arm to get her attention because apparently walking up to her wasn't enough. "There's always been one large thing that's bothered me about our invasion on Pekopon."

Angol Mois looked around as if trying to figure out who Kululu was talking to. She pointed at herself, "M-me?" she wasn't sure what she had to do with any wild theories or problems with the Pekopon invasion. Perhaps Kululu was just used to bouncing his theories off of someone on the sidelines and that someone was always Angol Mois.

Kululu continued talking. "When you first came to Pekopon...Well I suppose the second time you came here and landed on the Hinata House did you ever think that it was weird that keronians were here also to invade?" Kululu finally asked his question.

Angol Mois looked confused at Kululu even asking that. "Why would that confuse you about your own invasion? It doesn't have anything to do with the invasion." She reminded.

Kululu shook his head. "But don't our two people have a treaty? Wouldn't you have been properly informed about our invasion if it was that important? After all it would have been important for you to know that keronians were on the planet since your job here was to eliminate all life on this planet." Kululu reminded. "Us both being here really feels like conflicting interests for both our planets you know? Ku, ku, ku."

Angol Mois frowned. "So what are you saying? That you don't want me here because I'm here to eliminate all life? That you're _bothered_ by it?" Her eyes got little sparkly tears as she took everything he said in the wrong context.

Kululu took a step back and waved his hands frantically. "No! That isn't what I meant at all." He desperately tried to appease Angol Mois's anger and her ability to misunderstand quite easily. "I mean, it's not that I'm not happy you're here, it's just it's always confused me why Keron would send keronians here if an angolian was supposed to be on the planet. Ku, ku, ku. An invasion of a planet that's dead doesn't really work out"

Keroro was no longer pleading with Kululu to stop. Now he was just as confused as Kululu.

"...Was there a mistake, Lady Mois? Did the angolians never mention to Keron that Pekopon was marked for destruction?" Keroro asked. That would make sense of that huge issue and conflict of interests.

"I don't think there was any mistake." Fuyuki finally spoke up, smiling to himself. "After all the keronians being here saved us. If Keroro hadn't come to the planet Mois would have destroyed it." He reminded. "Keron probably knew Mois would have mercy on Keroro, Kululu, and would save the planet for him."

"AUGH! They knew of her devotion and dedication! Those sneaky horrible people! They were setting up the romance before it even happened!" Tamama screamed squishing a fruit slice under his hands that he had grabbed off of Mois's plate.

Kululu frowned. "...They knew she had fallen in love with her Uncle? Gross." He shuddered for a moment.

Angol Mois was still thinking, not really listening to Fuyuki. She was thinking about everything Kululu had said and set the plate of fruit down in front of Tamama so she could speak.

Tamama threw it promptly in the trash while she wasn't looking.

"At first I thought it was odd." She finally confessed. "I mean you were right. When I saw Uncle and Tamama I was confused why Keron had sent Keronian troops to a planet that was clearly angolian property and Angol had made extremely clear to it's allies about."

"Then why didn't you mention it?" Kululu asked quickly. "If you had first dibs in your mission why did you start helping ours? Why didn't you fight more against Captain to continue to have this planet as Angol's?" Kululu was extremely confused.

"I found it odd at first." Angol Mois continued. "But then I remembered that Keron's a bunch of dummies!" She smiled.

"What." Keroro frowned. This was not what he expected. They were all frowning.

"I mean, hello? Keron doesn't care about anyone other then themselves. That's why they want to enslave and invade other planets. It's downright horrible. I'm sure we wouldn't be allies with them at all if not for Uncle's and my bond." Angol Mois frowned to herself. "I mean, perhaps the treaty was put in place before that, honestly I never paid much attention to the politics going on on Angol. I preferred destroying things..." She rambled to herself.

"You...You probably should pay more attention. I mean aren't you literally going to be the leader of Angol someday? Seems like something important to learn. Not that I don't blame you for focusing on more fun and interesting things… Ku, ku, ku." Kululu frowned.

"But in the end I knew for a fact that Keron didn't care if Angol had the planet of Pekopon. They don't care about who has what, they only care about themselves. So I wasn't that confused for too long about you keronians being here." Angol Mois confessed.

Keroro sighed in relief. "See Kululu? Whatever wild theory you had about our invasion not being that important because Keron sent us to a planet that was supposed to be destroyed is wrong. Our job is to invade but now that we've happened upon the flies Keron realizes they can trust us with two jobs."

Kululu nodded. Angol Mois's reason to not be confused was a compelling one. It did make a lot of sense.

"Are you sure Keron just didn't care you were here?" Kululu asked.

Angol Mois nodded. "I bet that was one of the reasons Uncle in specific was chosen for the mission. Like he said they probably knew about our bond." She smiled.

Keroro nodded and gave a thumbs up. They then high-fived.

"AUGH! Stop bonding!" Tamama yelled.

They ignored him.

"That or Keron thought I over-slept and gave up on destroying the planet. They wouldn't be wrong about the over-sleeping part." Angol Mois giggled a little guiltily. "Or...They just forgot about me being here." Her voice got quiet for a moment "...Just like Uncle forgot that he raised me..."

"I didn't forget about you! I remember that you existed after you re-introduced yourself and started destroying the planet." Keroro defended himself.

"Keroro...That's the definition of forgetting." Giroro sighed.

"Oh." Keroro scratched his head.

Angol Mois started sobbing. Dororo went up to her and pat her back.

"I know. I know how you're feeling. I understand." Dororo comforted.

She just kept on crying.

Keroro side-stepped away and tried to ignore her just as he did to Dororo so often.

"Well...Mois's words sound like reasonable conclusions...But I wonder if they're really correct?" Kululu was sitting down still thinking about his theory. "Ku, ku, ku. Is it really that simple to say that Keron's just egotistical and selfish instead of cold and calculating? That they didn't think things too through about invading a planet that an angolian would destroy?" Kululu was speaking out loud again, mostly to himself. "Are we sure that their aim really was to invade Pekopon at all?" He repeated his previous question.

This time Keroro didn't have to stop him from talking. Giroro stopped him by letting out a loud yell. "We are invaders!"

They all looked at Giroro.

"We've been working on this Pekopon invasion for years." Giroro frowned. "We're the best of the best, that's why we were chosen. They had to choose only five keronians who would complete an entire invasion. We were celebrated before we left! There were parades!"

Tamama nodded branching off of Giroro's statement. Giroro sounded angry, insistent. He would not believe he was sent here for something other than invasion.

Tamama wanted to help Kululu understand. "I'm an invader in my heart." Tamama covered his heart. "My hero, Mr. Sergeant is going to invade. We are here for the invasion."

Keroro nodded. "They would have told me if it was something else. After all I'm the leader here. And plenty of other platoons have come here to try to take our jobs." Keroro reminded trying to reassure all of the platoon.

Even Dororo stopped patting Angol Mois's back to look a little bit unnerved. "We..We wouldn't be out right lied to, Kululu. There would have been bigger signs if we were." His voice was a little shaky.

Kululu frowned and stood up and started pacing. "Do you think I'm happy about my theory? Listen I want to be here for exactly what Keron told us we were sent here for too! But part of being an intelligence officer is questioning everything until you feel fully comfortable that you're at the truth. Ku, ku, ku."

"...That's not what being an intelligence officer is about. It's about loyalty." Keron reminded.

"Well, it's part of my version of being an intelligence officer. Being proud of your job and knowing what it is fully is important." Kululu reminded. "And even though I don't exactly want my theory to be true I'm going to continue providing the evidence for it so I can find counter-evidence against it. Ku, ku, ku."

He continued to pace and the platoon could not stop him.

Keroro glanced at Fuyuki. Kululu talking was at least stirring him out of his own fear and gathering Fuyuki's interest. Fuyuki probably related to wanting to say all his thoughts and having them debunked so his fears could be put to rest.

In this way Kululu and Fuyuki were a bit alike.

"You were talking about how much they celebrated the oncoming invasion of Pekopon and when we were sent here." Kululu reminded. "Well despite boasting about a large invasion force they abandoned us far too quickly to not entice suspicion. We were originally just going to be the recon troops after all, the first offense. But then we became the full invasion. Ku, ku, ku."

"They trust us." Giroro said hurriedly. "They have utmost faith in us."

"Everybody knows a five person troop can't fully invade a planet." Kululu reminded.

"A good one can." Giroro said under his breathe.

"Yeah. I'm sure the Garuru platoon would have invaded by now." Tamama pointed out.

Everybody shut up. It was probably true, but they didn't really like to think about it.

It stopped Kululu from talking for a moment out of sheer annoyance at the Garuru platoon. Eventually Kululu got his thoughts back and his evidence. "Yeah...I suppose the Garuru platoon could do it. But they're an A class platoon. We're a rank F. If Keron truly wanted us to do this mission wouldn't we have more Keroballs, higher grade equipment like there's?" Kululu asked.

"We all want better equipment Kululu." Keroro sighed. "But Keron's said they won't give us any better stuff because all our money keeps disappearing from our funds."

"Uncle. I handle finances and you and I both know it's not disappearing. You just said it was important to invest the money in Pekoponian culture like gundam models-" Angol Mois was cut off as Giroro just started shooting at Keroro in anger.

"You used up the money on Gundam models again?" He yelled, shooting angrily.

Keroro laughed nervously. He really had no counter response.

Kululu was still talking though and citing his evidence for the invasion not being that important. "Another point- why do we have Keroro of all people as our leader? Ku, ku, ku."

"H-hey!" Keroro frowned. "That's rude and now you're going too far. Me being your leader doesn't mean that our invasion is phony."

"Yeah. Mr. Sergeant might not have the greatest plans sometimes and might be a little uninspiring but he's still our leader. And everybody on Keron knows he's super famous and cool!" Tamama reminded.

Kululu frowned. "I wasn't referring to the fact he's incompetent since Keron seems to be in the dark about that. Ku, ku, ku. I was referring to the fact that he's a sergeant."

"W-what?" Keroro felt confused.

"Shouldn't we have someone higher in rank? A lieutenant at the very least? Sergeant's not actually that high of a rank. Ku, ku, ku. But for some reason the leader of our troop that's sent to invade Pekopon is a sergeant. It just...Doesn't make sense to me." Kululu admitted.

Keroro frowned. "Everybody in my family is sergeants. My father is a higher rank than a normal sergeant. He's like a demon sergeant. A sergeant isn't as nearly as bad as you think. You might just have a skewered outlook because you're higher than a sergeant." Keroro pointed out.

Kululu nodded. That might be a good point. "Well what about the high number of aliens that are also trying to invade this planet and failing? That's pretty common knowledge in space. So why would keronians be any different? Why does Keron think that only five keronians can do what the whole universe can't?"

"Because they believe in us!" Keroro said hurriedly, a cry to his voice. "Stop this, Kululu. Stop this theorizing!"

Giroro balled his hand into a fist. He'd stop this nonsense by force by punching some common sense into Kululu.

Surprisingly Giroro didn't have to get Kululu to stop it though. Keroro actually took the initiative. "Seriously though. Shut the heck up." Keroro's voice was much harsher than usual. He sounded actually mad.

Kululu tilted his head, interested in why Keroro was mad. "Oh?"

"Some of us have trained our entire lives to be invader's, Kululu. Our life, our identity, it all revolves around invading. It would be devastating if we weren't in fact invading at all. It can be our secondary goal perhaps, but not just a lie." Keroro frowned.

Keroro stepped forward nearer to Kululu. Kululu took a step back. "You might not understand, Kululu. You're a scientist, an inventor. Invading isn't the only thing you have. You can make Keron proud in other ways."

Kululu gave a curt nod.

"But some of the rest of us have a lineage of invading in our family. We literally do not have anything else. So don't even joke about our invasion being a lie." Keroro finally put his foot down.

Fuyuki looked up. "Is...Is that how...How you guys actually feel?" He always saw the invasion as a joke. He didn't know it was actually this important.

"Your theory isn't true anyway." Tamama cut off Fuyuki, answering Kululu instead. "There's no reason that we shouldn't invade this planet and why we couldn't be successful about invading this place. After all, Mr. Sergeant is a great invader." Tamama reminded. "That's common knowledge. He might have gotten a heck of a lot worse on Pekopon-"

Keroro frowned. "Hey."

"But the 'Mr. Sergeant from back' is widely recognized by Keron. They respect him. He's invaded lots of things before. He's had so many successful missions. So why would Keron send him on something that wasn't an invasion?" Tamama pointed out.

Kululu frowned. "It's just so hard to believe that Keroro was ever any of those things."

"Honestly same." Natsumi agreed. "I might never agree with you about anything else but it's hard to see the stupid frog as ever being competent."

"Surprisingly enough Tamama isn't lying or seeing things through rose colored glasses." Giroro nodded. "Keroro was competent once. He was exactly as Tamama described him. I'm not exactly sure how, I wasn't on many missions with him." He glanced at Keroro.

Keroro shrugged. "Luck?" He suggested. "Honestly I just acted like normal."

They all frowned.

Kululu sighed. "I...I know what you say has some truth in it, Tamama. Ku. It's just so hard to believe it. I mean the Keroro of now is an idiot who disappointed all of us."

"HEY!" Keroro was even more insulted.

"I mean I saw some of his achievements. The Keroro of back then seemed real in the moment. I suspect that as he says it's fool-hardy luck though. Or huge hoaxes. But Keron does seem to trust him." Kululu reluctantly agreed. "You're right." He looked at the ground for a moment. "...Thank you." He whispered to Tamama.

Tamama smiled. He knew deep down that Kululu of all people didn't want their invasion to be a lie the most. That was why he was talking out loud, he wanted to be proved wrong. As the youth it was Tamama's job to speak the truth.

"No problem." Tamama gave a thumbs up to Kululu.

"So...Now that we've dealt with that problem...We have to decide something," Keroro spoke up ignoring Kululu. "We know now we're still invading. Invasion is important and it's our real mission, but Keron wants us to focus on the flies right now. As keronian soldiers which one should we really focus on?"

They didn't know. They wanted to be invaders, but they didn't want to disobey a direct order. What was truly in Keron's heart? What were they truly all meant to do on this planet?

"...Please! Please don't capture the flies!" Haru begged coming into the room once he realized a descion was being made.

"You don't get a say in the matter." Natsumi spoke up.

"I think this is a matter for the Keroro platoon." Fuyuki agreed. "They need to decide for themselves what orders to follow." He was kind of still mad at his dad for housing bugs in his body.

And so the platoon decided to sleep on it.

* * *

Tamama and Dororo didn't live at the Hinata House, but they stayed the night there anyway. This wasn't all that unusual for Tamama, who liked to have sleepovers with Keroro, but this was more unusual for Dororo.

"Does he have to share the room with us?" Tamama asked a little bit annoyed. It wasn't like him and Keroro were a couple but he liked to fantasize that something might happen if they were in the room alone together. Nothing ever did thanks to one woman who would always join them, but during the blissful minutes without Mois he did like to fantasize.

"I don't have anywhere else to be." Dororo glared. "Lady Koyuki...Is even madder that we broke out. I know she heard about the flies from Natsumi but I haven't had the courage to face her and see if she's forgiven me yet. Since we share a home I have nowhere else to go."

Tamama frowned. He understood that feeling well. _Momoka's home is my home and she's still mad at me too. The only place we can be safe is together as a platoon._

The Hinata Family's anger had quickly dissolved against the platoon. Fuyuki might have completely forgotten about the kidnapping his mind filled with the images of flies bursting out of his father's body. Natsumi only had the energy to be angry at one force at a time and at the moment it was her father and Haru had long since forgiven them now that his secret had been revealed. He understood that the Keroro platoon was as much in the dark as his own children.

And Aki? Aki knew the Keroro platoon would break out again if she imprisoned them. Although she liked to boast at being in control of her own household the knowledge of her own powerlessness over her husband's secrets and the platoon was getting to her. She was just sort of too out of it to be mad.

It wasn't full forgiveness. It was just distraction. But it seemed that there would never be a resolution for the Hinata family over the kidnapping of their father. They were very used to the frogs doing something and them fighting them and then it being over and done with and forgotten.

Momoka was someone who held a grudge for far longer. And Koyuki rarely got mad, but at the moment felt betrayed by Dororo.

So both Dororo and Tamama had to stay at the Hinata House.

"Good night, Master Fuyuki..." Keroro seemed to still be worried that Fuyuki was mad at him though even if he was focusing on other issues.

Keroro was also looking after Fuyuki who was still on the couch just sort of shaking from the images of the bugs. His eyes were wide open.

Keroro's voice reached him and he eventually realized Keroro was there.

Keroro opened his arms as if to give Fuyuki a hug. Fuyuki shook his head.

"I'm...Disgusted by the bugs. Terrified. But...I think I'm still mad at you." Fuyuki was finally starting to remember what Keroro had done.

"R-really?" Keroro sounded unhappy.

"I...I trusted you. But you hurt my dad." Fuyuki thought for a moment, "It's also true though that I trusted my dad and he betrayed me too. He kept things from me, secrets." He looked down. "Everybody I trust betrays me. The two most important people in my life betrayed me." Fuyuki was being melo-dramatic.

Keroro frowned. "Not everyone you trust has an invasion to think about over you." Keroro reminded. "Natsumi is your sister. She loves you. Admiral Mama is someone you can trust too, she's always there for you."

Fuyuki's expression became more and more pained as he saw Keroro was comforting him despite his anger at Keroro.

"And Momoka? You can definitely trust her. Your happiness is her top priority. She's your friend." Keroro reminded.

At the mention of Momoka, Fuyuki's shivering face cracked a small smile. He gave a slow nod. Eventually he got off the couch and hugged Keroro to thank him for the comfort.

"I'm still mad and I don't know what to do, but thank you." He thanked.

"I'm an invader. I'm a soldier of Keron who does their orders, but I'm also your friend." Keroro reminded him. "I don't try to rank those among each other. They're all me."

Fuyuki nodded, tugged lightly on Keroro's hand to thank him for the comfort and walked off to bed.

Tamama watched Fuyuki go. "You going off to bed with me and Dororo now?" He asked Keroro.

Keroro nodded. "We all need some nice rest. I just hope we don't dream about those flies erupting from Haru's body. We...We need to think about what's more important. Following Keron's fickle orders about the flies or doing our actual job as invader's."

Tamama nodded and followed Keroro to his room.

* * *

The only one who was in any mood for forgiveness was Natsumi. She was far angrier with her father for not telling them about the flies than the frogs for acting exactly as how they usually did. And after thinking it over the keronians were right that Kululu had been the main perpetrator in anything more than kidnapping, he was the one who wanted to kill.

Instead of going immediately to bed she went outside to Giroro's tent as she usually did to get a sweet potato.

"I didn't think you wanted one today." Giroro noted. "I thought you'd be mad at me."

"I'm never too mad to eat potatoes." Natsumi said sternly. "You're lucky you're skilled in making these." She teased.

"W-wait...Is that why you're forgiving me way quicker than any of the other pekoponians with their keronian friends?" Giroro asked. "Because I'm bribing you with food?"

Natsumi just laughed. Giroro was so easy to tease. Teasing Giroro after she stopped feeling angry with him made her feel better about everything, reminded her that they were the same.

She took three of the potatoes that Giroro had cooked. She was ready to stress eat. She started scarfing them down.

"...Are you still mad at me?" Giroro asked, seeing that she did look angry. "I...I apologize. When Kululu..Kululu suggested going farther I should have started fighting him right there. He did so earlier too and I stood up against that time, but...I don't know. I guess I was just being stupid and trying to pretend to be a loyal Keron soldier. But I should have punched him in his ugly face."

"You made a mistake, but you wouldn't have let him go through with it. You would have realized your mistake last minute just like you do in all the frogs plans." Natsumi shrugged. She was noticing that was how Giroro usually acted. In the middle of the plans he was her enemy but when things started getting serious or working he'd screw them up.

He was a mess.

"But...There's no reason you shouldn't be mad at me. You have way more of a reason to be mad at me verses Koyuki being mad at Dororo. I mean I still regret that I make those mistakes. If I was truly the perfect soldier I wouldn't turn my back on so many plans...So there's reason you should be mad at me. Because I regret the fact that I help." Giroro reminded.

"I'm not mad at you right now, Giroro." Natsumi sighed. "I'm mad at him...Haru. My father."

Giroro quieted down, realizing that this was bigger than his own confliction about his loyalty to his planet or Natsumi. This was about Natsumi's family issues.

"He...He abandoned his whole family! For what? To look for gross bug aliens? He was hanging out with them instead of taking care of his family! I barely remember him, he went traveling as soon as Fuyuki was born..." Natsumi ranted. "I was so alone during my childhood. I would beat up kids all the time, but I didn't have anyone telling me it was wrong or talking to me to discipline me when my teachers told a parent because mom had to work and was too out of it to take care of me. I always had to be home at a certain time for curfew but there was nobody at home to be around...It was terrible, Giroro."

"I..." Giroro wanted to comfort her but she cut him off.

"And he's telling me that I had to go through that so he could have a bunch of alien bug friends? Even Fuyuki wouldn't go that far for aliens! He wouldn't abandon his own children. Fuyuki's love for the occult has been more healthy than his." Natsumi yelled, eating more and more potatoes. "I hate him! I hate him so much! Why did he do this to us? He hurt Mom, he hurt me, he hurt Fuyuki! He messed up all of us. I didn't have a father because of him!"

Giroro put his hand on Natsumi's hand. "You don't need both parents to grow up into a strong person. You can be fine if you're raised by only one parent. It's still a perfectly fine and loving environment."

Natsumi stopped shouting and yelling at Giroro's surprisingly wise words.

"Heck, you don't even need parents. Sometimes you just have yourself. But that's still enough. And he didn't mess up you. You're perfect. You don't need him." Giroro told her. "If he wasn't there in your childhood that means you became the person you are today without his influence. Everything he does now can not hurt you. He has no affect. You're so much stronger than he is. Fuyuki is too. He's barely met the guy."

Natsumi's expression became soft and a smile crossed her face. Giroro's words meant a lot to her. "Giroro….!" She opened her arms and was about to throw them around him in a hug.

That was when Kululu popped out of the ground between them from a ground panel. "Ku, ku, ku. Oops! Was I interrupting? I don't care."

"KULULU! Get out of here! We were making up!" Giroro yelled.

"Yuck. I hate the kissing and making up cliché." Kululu was wearing a little police siren on his head that was circling with a blinking red light.

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

It blared loudly.

"W-what...What is that?" Natsumi asked.

"Incoming news." Kululu frowned. "I came here because the platoon is gathering. One of my satellites picked up something of interest a few light years away. I'll explain in the meeting room."

Kululu disappeared in the floor panel ready to be an alarm siren for the rest of the platoon.

Giroro sighed, realizing that whatever Kululu had seen was probably serious. "Sorry, I gotta go."

Natsumi nodded letting him leave the potatoes while he went to go meet with his platoon.

* * *

The platoon gathered tiredly in the meeting room.

"My satellite picked up that one of the fastest keronian ships on Keron is heading here. It should be here by early morning which is only a few hours away." Kululu spoke showing some video footage.

"A keronian ship?" Giroro asked. "What? Why?"

"It's not the entire fleet. They're not fast enough to get here so quickly. But it's clearly an important ship. Better quality than the Garuru platoon's ships for one. Ku, ku, ku."

"You don't think it's DK66 again, do you?" Keroro looked frightened. "Was my negotiations not enough? Are they going to take us off of invasion for good for this fly mission?"

"Temper tantrum." Kululu corrected. "And...I don't know. It's not close enough for me to scan to see if it has any network connection to our super computer DK66."

Natsumi opened the doors to the meeting room. She had heard most of what the keronians had said and knew they would be in here.

"Will the keronians go to war with those bugs?" Natsumi asked, looking directly at Kululu assuming that he was more informed than Keroro. "Will my planet be in the middle of your dumb war?"

Her voice and question wasn't unfounded and it had a seriousness and urgency to it.

"There won't be a war. They're just bug aliens after all." Giroro reminded. "All they can do is flee. They won't fight us."

"If you want to live sometimes you can't run and hide forever, sometimes you have to fight for your rights. Maybe the bugs are at that point where they realize that." Natsumi pointed out.

"I'll protect you no matter what." Giroro promised her romantically. "If it comes down to a battle, I'll make sure you and your planet is safe."

"Oooh! He's getting more dramatic and romantic." Keroro giggled and teased. "Good job, Giroro, still trying to romance the enemy I see!"

"Now's not the time to flirt, corporal." Tamama teased.

Giroro blushed deeply. "Shut up! I wasn't flirting. I was reassuring Natsumi not to worry!"

Natsumi smiled mostly ignoring the frogs teasing Giroro. "It's all right. Thank you, Giroro." She leaned down and hugged Giroro for just a short second.

It still was enough to melt Giroro. He just grinned and melted on the floor overly happy.

The rest of the platoon turned away from Natsumi and Giroro's overly romantic display.

"Well? What do we do about the ship?" Kululu asked Keroro since Keroro was technically the leader.

"Only thing we can do- Wait it out and see what it wants." Keroro replied. It was their own forces and planet so they couldn't fight it, it wasn't their enemy.

He just hoped it wasn't anything bad.

 _Please don't be the end of our invasion._ He prayed.

* * *

The next morning the keronians and Fuyuki and Natsumi waited outside for the ship. It landed in the exact place all ships landed- Giroro's tent.

"Oh come on!" Giroro yelled. Life was just not fair.

It wasn't a particularly big ship, but it was clearly newer and more advanced built for defense and speed. The door opened for the people inside the ship to come out.

The first one to exit the ship was just a normal looking green keronian, more of a rain forest dark green, with two hats on his head like horns. He was well dressed but looked young.

"You don't look familiar." Giroro noticed. "Who are you?"

"I'm Agugu!" The keronian introduced. "I just started interning with the council recently. I'm new."

Giroro looked impressed. An intern position with the council of all things was no easy thing, it was a hard position to get. This Agugu was no everyday keronian.

Slowly the colonel, shrouded in his usual darkness and shadows, walked out of the ship. There was a visible gasping sound from all the keronians as they saw the colonel in person.

They hadn't expected him to be on that ship.

"AHH! C-colonel!" Keroro stuttered. "Oh crap, crap, crap..." He knew the colonel would want to talk to him out of the entire platoon since he was the leader. "I don't know the colonel's name!" Keroro realized.

The colonel just stared in him in utter silence as Keroro ran around like a headless chicken.

"Ummm..C-colonel! We're doing great with the pekopon invasion!" Keroro leaned down. "Let me shine your shoes or something to make you feel more at home! Or I could give you a back rub..."

"I don't wear shoes." The colonel said very simply.

Keroro felt a jolt of lightning go up his body. His entire plan to make the colonel like him by shining his shoes was now dead.

He tried not to panic but very visibly panicked. "h-a. Hoo, ha," His breathing was very scattered.

"Panic is not a good emotion on you, sergeant Keroro." The colonel spoke up after ten whole minutes of watching Keroro roll around in the dirt panicking and humoring him.

The rest of the platoon was panicking too, but they were keeping their cool a little better than Keroro. Well Kululu was. The rest of them were trying to keep their own hyperventilating a secret. Badly.

"D-did you come about the i-invasion? W-we're doing great? Right, right, guys?" Keroro asked.

The colonel rolled his eyes. "I did not come about the Pekopon invasion. I have come about the flyians. I am going to retrieve them. They are extremely important to our planet's future."

Keroro got up off the ground. That was a relief. The colonel was just here about those boring fly creatures.

He was about to speak and say that Keron could trust them to handle that too instead of sending down more troops, but instead Haru flung open the glass doors to make this whole discussion a problem.

"You can't take the flyians!" Haru yelled running up to the colonel. He still looked tired from a bunch of flies erupting from him. "They're my friends!"

The colonel frowned and looked at Haru. "I suppose this is the admiral which you spoke of? The Pekoponian Haru Hinata?"

Keroro nodded.

Haru threw himself between Keroro and the colonel. "I'll protect my friends with my dying breath." Haru vowed.

"I can arrange that." The colonel responded, not really caring for this pekoponian now that he didn't have any flies in him. He pressed a button and a laser on his ship locked onto Haru.

"SAVE FUYUKI'S FATHER!" There was a sudden scream from above and the colonel looked up.

There were several helicopters in the sky. A rope was thrown down and Momoka Nishizawa slid down the rope with a huge shield that the Nishizawa labs had probably made for her.

As soon as the laser shot towards Haru she used the shield to deflect it, protecting Haru. She landed on the ground gracefully. "Am I good enough to be Fuyuki's bride now? Do you approve of me?"

"Wow...You're a lot cooler than I first thought." Haru was impressed that Momoka had saved his life. "But how did you know that I was in danger?"

"Not important." Momoka waved her hand neglecting to mention her constant Nishizawa surveillance. She stood in front of Haru. "I won't let any frogs harm Fuyuki's father." She vowed. "I will protect Fuyuki's happiness."

The colonel stared at Momoka for a minute and then looked up as if assessing the technology of her helicopters. "Yes. You've definitely made yourself an enemy of Keron by trying to protect this man." He nodded, charging up his laser beam again.

Fuyuki ran over. "You're not going to hurt Nishizawa." Fuyuki glared. "Look, I love aliens, but I don't understand why you want to fight any of us. Still I won't let you hurt her."

Momoka suddenly stopped looking tough so that Fuyuki could protect her. She leaned her head on Fuyuki's back. "Oh! Fuyuki protect me!" She swooned. "Ahhh~ He looks so cool."

Natsumi sighed. She knew her brother couldn't protect squat or do anything in a fight. She ran over too. "We've already got way too many frogs on my planet. The quota is filled." She put her fists up ready to fight.

"Nooo! This is way worse than anything I imagined with the colonel visiting." Giroro worried. "They're already immediately fighting."

"Not all of them." Dororo pointed out. "Koyuki and Saburo are safe-"

"I'll help Natsumi! She's my best friend after all!" Koyuki popped out of the Hinata House ceiling and jumped over.

"How...How long have you been there?" Natsumi asked.

"All night." Koyuki replied.

Natsumi looked very concerned.

As if on cue, the last pekoponian came, hopping the fence. "Yo! A fight. Let me get in on this!" Saburo waved.

"YOU WEREN'T INVITED!" Giroro yelled. He knew he wasn't trying to protect Saburo from the colonel but still he was annoyed by Saburo just appearing all of a sudden to get in on this dramatic scene.

"Yeah but why would I miss out on this stuff?" Saburo laughed. "Not like I was doing anything right now anyway. Maybe this will kill some boredom for a bit."

Giroro scowled and just groaned.

The colonel looked at the five pekoponians with interest and flicked his wrist. Suddenly other keronians came out of his ship, a whole regime of troops carrying lasers, guns and tractor beams.

"Come on! We've defeated the stupid frog's platoon time and time again! We can defeat these guys! We're the planet's last defense!" Natsumi yelled a war cry to get her friends fired up. They ran towards the frogs with their various weapon.

"We're different from those keronians you usually play with though, you poor child." The colonel said and actually smiled.

And before any of their weapons could actually reach the colonel or his hand picked troops, the keronians had made short work of the pekoponians. Not even Koyuki's ninja tricks or stars had reached anyone, instead each of the pekoponians were frozen to the ground with various rayguns.

"W-what's...What's happening?" Natsumi tried to move. She could not.

"Tractor beam. Freezes your actions. If I couldn't take on five teenagers I wouldn't be a colonel now, would I?" The colonel asked. "You are very outmatched and out ranked."

Fuyuki looked worried for a moment, his eyes drifting over to Keroro realizing how very different the platoon was to the rest of their planet. They weren't as strong as a colonel after all.

"Heh. You defeated us pretty quick. We couldn't even get one hit in." Saburo realized. His pen was on the ground. Even he couldn't get out of this situation.

The helicopters were frozen in the air above as well. Momoka could do nothing.

Koyuki tried to contour her body but even her auras and energy was frozen, her mouth could move but she didn't have any darts she could reach to throw with her mouth.

The colonel walked over to Natsumi and Fuyuki, placing all of the five frozen bodies in front of him in a line. He brought them all to the ground laying there so he could look down on them.

Giroro instantly moved forward reaching for a gun. Keroro stopped him.

"He won't hurt them. He's not here for the invasion. He's here for the flies." Keroro whispered. "I can negotiate if it comes to him hurting them. But we'd be outmatched if we fought a superior. Bad for us because he's the colonel and just because we have no hope of beating him."

Giroro nodded. Keroro had managed to cry enough to turn DK66 into listening to him. Maybe if things came down to it he could do the same with the colonel.

"You two are the Hinata children." The colonel noted. "You resemble your father a bit. But the female one resembles him the most in hair color. Hair must be like keronian skin of brightly colored and to indicate special. Tell me, what does pink hair mean in your society?"

"Ummm...Nothing? Hair doesn't indicate societal standings?" Natsumi said.

"In anime it means they're a main character. Or a waifu." Keroro spoke up. Everybody glared at him.

The colonel frowned. "You're the two I sent two soldiers to infiltrate. I believe when the platoon was split up I sent Corporal Giroro to infiltrate you-" He pointed to Natsumi, "And sergeant Keroro to the Hinata house to be with your family." He pointed to Fuyuki.

"Infiltrate?" Fuyuki asked confused. "But...Keroro and Giroro met us out of accident. They aren't...Acting like they're our friends..."

Keroro took a step back just as confused as Fuyuki. He looked at his platoon. The colonel was using the wrong words. They weren't infiltrating. The platoon had been split up accidentally when they came to pekopon. Their ship had crashed and they had all been separated.

It had been scary at first but eventually Keroro had found the rest of his platoon. Sure, he had landed near the Hinata family but that wasn't infiltrating.

"Giroro...He's using the wrong words." Keroro pointed out, smiling and whispering. "You weren't even near the Hinata family when we landed here."

"I was." Giroro was pale. "I managed to find you quite easily but I saw how much of a slave you had become. I wanted to remind you we were soldiers and watched them for a bit. I think I found you because I saw Natsumi on the street, which was where I landed and was confused by the pink hair. I followed her secretly and saw you."

Keroro frowned deeply.

"Our research on this planet indicated that your father was interested in the occult and that his son was as well. His research was much more profound though. We thought it might be a good bet to finding the flyians so you two were at the top of our people of interests list." The colonel explained.

Keroro listened with horror. The more the colonel spoke the more it sounded like his platoon had been purposefully separated for a few to get attached to specific pekoponians- Natsumi and Fuyuki in this case.

It all went back to the flies. He looked at Saburo, Momoka and Koyuki. Did those three had similar stories of being people of interest? The colonel had definitely looked like he knew of Momoka when she had appeared.

His entire platoon was beginning to realize it. Their separation was no coincidence at the beginning of their invasion. It was arranged not for the purpose of invasion but to get close to people close to the flyians.

The colonel took out a scanner. "Well, better make sure no flies are living inside any of you like they were for the pink haired man." The colonel pointed to the frozen Haru. "I didn't even know flyians did that."

He started at the edge with Saburo, briefly scanning him. He shook his head. "You do have some signs that those flyians were active in your area. You must be one of the students at the school I dropped...Sergeant Major Kululu off at, I believe?"

"So Natsumi and Fuyuki have this cool occult dad and that's why you sent keronians to them and all I've got is being a student? Greeeat…." Saburo said sarcastically. "Literally the trait I'm least proud of."

The colonel ignored him and headed over to Momoka and scanned her. "Ah yes. A Nishizawa! This one I remember specifically. We all thought the Nishizawa family had some sort of symbiosis with the flyians and that's why they had so much power. We'll have to scan you with our more high-tech scanners."

Momoka looked scared for a moment.

"Perhaps I should have sent a better keronian to infiltrate and get closer to you. A more observant one. Yes, I should have switched Private Second Class Tamama and Sergeant Major Kululu." The colonel was speaking to himself.

He finally got to Koyuki and scanned her. He had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"What? Are there flies in me?" Koyuki asked.

"No. It's interesting. All pekoponians have some sort of residual air that the flyians have been around them in some way. But you don't. I believe your entire forest was the one place on all of Pekopon that had absolutely no signs of the flyians. That was why I sent a keronian there, lance corporal Zeroro." The colonel was still thinking. "Your forest and you are truly unique and a mystery. Untouched completely by the flyians."

"What does that mean?" Koyuki asked. But she already knew what it meant. Something about her ninja clan was special.

"So...You mean all the places we landed were places that had some connection with the flies?" Keroro finally asked. "Either suspected of harboring them or had some clues to the mystery of them?" He felt betrayed. Everything was not an accident or fate.

It was set up carefully.

The colonel gave a quick nod.

The keronians didn't know what to say. They were all frozen to the spot too afraid to move worried their pekoponian friends would be punished for it. Some of them didn't want to ask questions as well. They didn't want to face the truth.

Kululu however only cared about information. He needed and yearned for the truth feeling it was an insult that he didn't have it yet. Things were still being kept from him and he needed answers.

He didn't like being kept in the dark. While all of the other keronians did not move he walked over the colonel, unafraid for his pekoponian. He knew Saburo didn't look all that frightened.

"I think it's about time you tell us the truth. The full truth. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu requested.

"What do you mean by that?" The colonel asked.

"I have a hypothesis." Kululu grinned. "And I want you to tell me if it's right or not."

"Always a pleasure being interrogated and confronted by you." The colonel sighed. He didn't particularly like Kululu.

"Ku, ku, ku. Feeling's more than mutual." Kululu grinned.

"Kululu...Kululu no..." Keroro begged. He didn't want Kululu to ask about the invasion if that was truly their goal. He already knew the answer deep inside his sub-conscious. But he didn't want to hear it.

It would be devastating to know the invasion that they had all worked so hard for was a lie.

Kululu did not listen to Keroro's orders. "We were sent to this planet to find these flyians. Not to invade. Invasion is not our primary mission." He stated his hypothesis. "So why, if it was about these flyians all along, did you not tell us about our real mission?"

Kululu stared directly at the colonel.

The colonel didn't even sigh. He just stared at Kululu. But Kululu wasn't scared of the menacing look that the colonel gave or the powerful shadowy figure.

"Hey! You shouldn't ask things like that." Agugu frowned. "You should just be happy doing as Keron tells you to!" Agugu was about to fight Kululu. After all Kululu looked like a wimp.

The colonel put a hand on Agugu's shoulder to stop him. "Petty fights aren't what the military is about."

Giroro, Tamama and Keroro looked at the ground and kicked at the dirt.

The colonel looked at Kululu and then looked behind him at the Keroro platoon. "You are correct. Invasion...Was never your goal on this planet."

"I knew it! Ku. Even if you guys purposefully hold the truth from me, I'll find it anyway. So you might as well just give me the military secrets, promote me back to Major like I was meant to be and let me in on these meeting discussions." Kululu put his hands behind his head and stretched.

Keroro fell to the ground in shock. They had always worked so hard at the invasion. Giroro punched the wall making a crack in it.

Tamama just looked confused.

Dororo shrugged. It made no difference to him if their mission was to imprison flies or invade.

"You were all hand picked for this mission." The colonel continued. He lifted up his hand and a soldier handed him several files with the Keroro Platoon's name on it. "To lure out the flyians. It had to be all of you. Nobody else could do it."

Keroro got out. Those words of praise and faith were helping him get through the lies. Giroro also focused his attention on the colonel.

"I suspected it was something like that." Kululu grinned continuing to talk like he was the colonel's equal rank wise. "That all our traits were the things you needed to make the flyians believe that we weren't here for them, but made us still able to complete the mission. Ku, ku, ku."

"No. The whole point is that you weren't able to complete any missions." The colonel corrected.

Kululu stopped talking, confused.

"Since you want the truth so much I'll give it to you." The colonel threw the files on the ground. Each one had a name. Tamama, Keroro, Kululu, Zeroro, Giroro. "Those are each of your files listing why we chose you and your information on this mission."

Kululu desperate for information, moved forward to the files and now that he was no longer occupying the colonel's attention, the colonel drew his attention back to Koyuki who was still a mystery to him.

"I don't know if a scanner can get what I want from you. I think we'll have to examine directly." He moved forward.

And unlike what Keroro had said, the colonel pulled out a knife and stabbed Koyuki right there.

She didn't scream, her training had helped her learn not to scream in situations like this. But it was clear to see blood running down her arm.

Dororo screamed. "LADY KOYUKI!"

"Bring a mind probe. Perhaps she's keeping answers from us." The colonel told Agugu. "One should be inside the ship. I don't think we have them functioning to work with hair so it will cause the body quite a bit of damage but if it gives us answers that should work."

Agugu nodded and rushed off to retrieve it.

Dororo took out his sword almost immediately. He hissed and glared at the colonel with a murderous gaze.

"D-dororo...We can talk to him." Keroro insisted.

"Speak for yourself! If this was Fuyuki about to be tortured you wouldn't stand for it. Heck if it was Natsumi you'd just expect Giroro to go all battle crazy to save her. But apparently I can't protect the people closest to me." Dororo glared. "My loyalty is to Koyuki first before Keron now. I've made no secret of that." He hissed. He raised his sword and ran. "Lady Koyuki I won't let you be frozen for any longer!"

The colonel sighed at the over-dramaticness. "Freeze him too."

His troops nodded and quickly froze Dororo before he could reach him. "H-how did you..Hit me? I was going so fast. It was so hard to remember me."

"You took time talking." The colonel replied. He glanced at the bloodied knife and Koyuki and then surveyed the platoon's faces.

Although Dororo was crying by far the most a few of the others looked worried. They glanced at their pekoponian friends. Keroro was nervously covering his mouth to hide his expression.

"You all look a bit unnerved when these pekoponians are hurt." The colonel spoke up.

"N-no. I mean, we're soldiers. We're loyal to Keron. It just it doesn't look like there's any point. How about you just let me talk to them, you know, the Great Sergeant Keroro? Who's accomplished so much?" Keroro suggested.

The Colonel moved over to Fuyuki, placing his knife above him, as if to experiment as to what would happen.

Keroro started crying. "N-no! No! Not Fuyuki! P-please! Please don't!"

"Keroro, I thought you said you could negotiate! Not cry!" Giroro crossed his arms angrily. "God this means things are going to come down to a fight." He loaded up his gun. "I won't let Natsumi's brother be hurt by anyone."

Keroro was being rather useless. He just sobbed and pounded a fist on the ground, rather frightened. But oddly enough the colonel took a step away from Fuyuki.

"Hold it now. We don't need another DK66 incident." He said quickly.

Keroro stopped crying.

"You're kidding right?" Tamama asked with a little bit of distaste. "I wanted a heroic fight but a temper tantrum is going to win again?"

"Told ya negotiations worked." Keroro smiled and got up, brushing dirt off his legs pretending he hadn't been crying a moment ago.

The colonel stared for a moment as Keroro frowned at him.

"But seriously. Please don't hurt any of our pekoponian friends, Koyuki included. Fuyuki, the boy you were about to hurt a moment ago is very important to me. He's taught me about the joys of friendship. We've gone on so many adventures, saved the planet so many times. I'm only as strong as I am now because of him." Keroro explained. "If you try to hurt him my platoon might have to face you. I know we aren't as strong as you, but we'd try to fight for what we believe in." He sniffled a bit about to cry again.

The colonel had a flash of something new on his face. The emotion of fear. "There's no need for things to go so far. I do not want us to become enemies, Sergeant Keroro. And you have proven that your emotional desperation is a force to be feared with DK66." The colonel spoke up. "I'd rather have it on our side than against us."

Keroro nodded.

"Then you'll free them? You won't hurt Haru or Koyuki or anyone?" Keroro asked.

"Well...I do have to be honest with you, sergeant. I originally came here from orders from my superiors to get the flyians myself. Pekopon might get hurt in the crossfire once the other forces get here because we will look without any thought to the pekoponians safety, but..." The colonel looked at Keroro's frown.

"But?"

"Wagers and bets were always my specialty and place of interest. And I see that doing that would upset your platoon if I did not give you a chance. So would you care to make a wager?" The colonel asked, looking much more calm and in control.

"A wager for the planet?" Keroro asked. It sounded good. After all a lot of bad things might happen if he lost. "Explain."

"All our forces will withdraw and we won't hurt this planet. We won't hurt any of your pekoponian friends if your platoon can find and capture the flyians faster than we can. We'll give you five months to do it." The colonel explained.

"And we get free reign to look around and search for them in the five months?" Keroro asked, smiling. This sounded like a bet he could win. "What's the catch?"

"Nothing. Just that it's nearly impossible to get the flyians in five month's time. After all we've been looking for them for generations." The colonel reminded. "We're giving you five months to find them, with Pekopon's safety and freedom on the line."

Keroro smiled. "That sounds great! And at the end of the period of time we-"

"If you give us the flyians your friends can live peacefully, we'll never return to this planet and you'll live on this planet happily for the rest of your lives." The colonel nodded.

Giroro looked confused and finally spoke up. "Why would we live here? Wouldn't we have completed our job?" He knew why they were given a chance to save Pekopon, Keron wasn't actually interested in invading it.

But he was still confused as to why they wouldn't go back to Keron after the mission was complete. Perhaps the colonel had made a mistake?

Still he loaded bullets in his gun just in case Keroro didn't agree to the wager. He needed to free Natsumi. _I guess in the end I really am willing to fight for the planet, even against my own planet._

Before Giroro could worry about his own confliction over choosing Natsumi or Keron, the colonel put a new worry in his head and finally answered the missing pieces.

Kululu was just now reaching down and reading the file. His own file. He dropped it immediately.

"It's because your mission here and the reason why you got no information on the flyians was because you were bait. You were hand-picked as bait and kept in the dark because we all assumed that the flyians would want revenge on the keronians and would reveal themselves to you. You were all expendable so it was no horrible travesty if you died here."

There was utter silence. The platoon couldn't even hear the rustling of leaves in the wind at the moment.

"You five after all are the biggest idiots in the history of Keron." The colonel finished. "That's why I find a wager interesting- that you somehow would find these flies instead of us in this amount of time. I'll give you the planet in return."

Giroro's mouth hung open his shoulders slumping and his arms hanging to his sides. His entire life was built around being loyal to Keron a Keronian solider. He grabbed his file in the pile of files and opened it.

It was all written about him and his pekoponian Natsumi Hinata.

"You will live here happily after we are done with the planet because you don't really have a home to return to on Keron. You're all rather expendable and the military has elected for you to not return to service at the current moment."

Everybody was silent. Giroro dropped to his knees to weak to even hold his gun to protect Natsumi and his platoon.

A tear went down Dororo's cheek since he couldn't move. Although he was a traitor he didn't think Keron didn't have faith in him and still thought of himself technically as part of Keron.

Tamama just shook his head over and over again.

Kululu didn't even laugh. He just weak, worse than Giroro in fact from that realization that he was expandable.

Keroro wanted to cry. He wanted to scream out loud, but he knew he couldn't. He was still negotiating. He instead stuck out a shaky hand. "I agree to the wager."

The colonel shook his hand.

"Good." The colonel smiled.

Keroro could not smile back. _Am I really a failure? Am I really the biggest idiot in Keron?_ No he couldn't think like that. He wasn't.

He remembered what Tamama had said about him. He had real achievements. He remembered them. So maybe that wasn't true for him. Maybe he wasn't expendable and an idiot. Maybe Keron needed a real leader in this platoon.

It was wishful, stupid thinking. Keroro knew it was all lies but he liked thinking it.

The colonel snapped his fingers and the pekoponians and Dororo were released from their frozen tractor beam chambers.

Quickly they all dispersed in different directions. Fuyuki taking Momoka's hand and heading inside where it was safer, Saburo jumping the fence and running off and Natsumi running to get new weapons from downstairs.

Dororo ran over to Koyuki who was still bleeding. He quickly grabbed a bandage from one of her pouches and started bandaging her arm. "I was so worried about you. Are you hurt? Are you okay?" He was very sweet sounding as he quickly looked over her.

"I'm fine." Koyuki reassured.

Dororo just hugged her tightly. He didn't want to stop.

Haru got off of the ground, wheezing for a moment as the colonel and his troops headed back into the ship and launched off.

"I beg you...My planet can handle itself, but please...Don't give away my friends. We can fight the keronians. We can do it." Haru was determined. "Do the right thing and protect the flyians."

"No man, I'm going to save Pekopon." Keroro frowned. "Pekoponians are my alien friends. I'm sorry but this is the only way to protect the planet."

The ship launched itself off, flying away. Giroro lamely watched it go.

"Do...Do we need a plan to find the flyians?" His voice was weak. It seemed like only Keroro's voice was fully his own. Keroro was better at faking being happy and fine. Everybody else was too focused on being expandable, or worrying about Koyuki in Dororo's case.

Keroro frowned thinking to himself. "They could be anywhere in the world. The flyians. They could have split up and be in any country. We should probably split up to cover more ground." He decided.

Giroro nodded. He agreed with that sentiment.

They all nodded, except Tamama.

"Phooey. I hate the split up mechanic. It basically makes sure that I can't be with my favorite person and then it gives that woman more time to bond with him." Tamama growled in annoyance.

"We should all go widely different places." Keroro continued speaking ignoring Tamama, "We'll meet back up in say three months, or whenever. Ya know, just when you've got some or found something's."

Keroro frowned and put on his thinking face, wondering if that was all he wanted to say. He glanced at Haru for a moment. _The flyians seem to like our pekoponian friends better than us. The colonel did say that we were sent to each one specifically._ "Also, get in good with the pekoponian you were apparently assigned to." He requested. "That way since the flyians like them better than us, they can help us lure them towards them since _apparently_ flyians like living in their skin. Gross."

"Good plan. It's rare of you to actually act smart." Natsumi was back with a bunch of weapons like a mace, battle star and gauntlets.

"Where did you even get that?" Giroro asked.

Natsumi shrugged. "It was lying around. Darn it, those keronians left before I could beat them up."

Keroro nodded at the smart comment. "I'll do anything to save this planet. I won't let Fuyuki be mad at me any longer. I'll save the people of this planet and the toys."

Natsumi frowned suspecting it was mostly the toys.

"Keroro platoon disperse!" Keroro ordered.

And although the keronians no longer really felt like the Keroro platoon or a platoon they nodded and went their own directions to gather their supplies and figure out where they were going to find the flies...and with their life.

* * *

 **DK66 was the super computer that Keroro faced at the end of the series.**

 **I want to try to have Koyuki do more in my stories.**

 **God darn Giroro and Natsumi are taking over again.**

 **I feel bad because Angol Mois is my favorite character but she's done a surprising little amount so far in this fic. There hasn't been that much kurumois yet either. I will need to remedy that somehow.**

 **I feel like Angol Mois deserves a higher role in a Kerotama story, even if it is just to annoy Tamama. Some things are just meant to be.**

 **Sorry again that it might have felt rushed or disjointed. I was very sick. I tried to repeat the baseline information to help people remember that the flyians are a part of this story, and remind people of the core concepts so they won't forget.**

 **The next few chapters will be the keronians split into little groups so I don't have to handle them all at once. For example there will be a Dororo chapter, a Giroro chapter, a Kululu chapter and so forth.**

 **Originally in my draft I was going to write a dramatic battle scene of the pekoponians each individually being beaten by the colonel's troops. But then I got lazy. I mean they did get beaten that quick in the draft I just didn't want to go into too much detail.**

 **Anyway please review. Even if it's short.**


	6. Perfect Soldier

**Incoming, the Gironatsu chapter...**

 **This chapter has the most Gironatsu out of any of the chapters, and resolves that little thing. It also focuses on what was in Giroro's file and Natsumi's character.**

 **I hope you enjoy. I hope the Gironatsu fans enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

" _I hate the split up mechanic!"_ It was a mechanic well known in video games, roleplays like dungeons and dragons and other nerdy things. Keroro knew what Tamama was referring too well.

The split up mechanic was always warned against. It made the weaker members vulnerable and likely to die. But still Keroro had suggested it because they simply did not have enough time to be working together.

He packed up his things quietly wondering if he had made the wrong choice. Had his train of thought been correct because it meant they could cover more ground? Or was he abandoning himself to be alone?

 _If anyone's going to be in trouble it's me. I don't have weapons like the rest. I'm one of those weaker members._ Keroro realized. There were other thoughts and worries going around in his head like about how he was apparently the biggest idiot on Keron, but right now his mind was filled with worry about being alone and without his platoon.

 _What...What if they just all abandon the mission and me?_ Keroro realized with horror. Perhaps the news about their fake invasion was too devastating for some of them and they just left while they were supposed to be searching. Giroro and Kululu definitely looked like they wanted to disappear into the air itself.

 _Will we really all find each other again after this? Or will we remain split up for the rest of our lives?_ The last time they had been separated to such a large degree they had crash landed on Pekopon at the beginning of their invasion.

But apparently the places where they crash landed were per-arranged. They were meant to find one another again. There was no actual separation.

The news that Keron had given them a fake mission and fake invasion was still jarring to him. It made his knees go wobbly. It was like part of his life, or most of his entire life was a lie. His reality was coming crashing down.

His father and mother had told him they were so proud when he went off to invade. Had they known? They had to know. After all his father, the Demon Sergeant checked up on him frequently, and worked very closely with the colonel.

 _Was he lying to me the whole time...Did he just never love me? Had he set me up too?_ Keroro didn't know.

He knew his father boasted to him that he was always meant to be a proud captain, a sergeant. That the fact that he had earned the famed keron star was proof of that instead of just using a regular star sticker.

Keroro had believed him at the time. But now he wondered if there had been any truth in those words at all, or perhaps it had just taken Keron a while to realize that his miraculous successes were a bunch of flukes.

 _I was never meant to be a real captain and leader, was I? I don't have the skills for it. I'm just a failure._ Keroro realized.

He wanted to curl up into a ball. He was still playing as their leader. He had sent them off on a mission, probably a pointless one.

No way could the biggest fools in Keron's history succeed. He might never see his precious platoon mates again because they'd probably fail. They were failures too after all. Could he trust them with this mission?

 _I don't know where each of them will go. They haven't yet all departed but I still yearn to see them. It's only been twenty minutes and I miss them._ Keroro realized. He hadn't had this sort of homesick feeling as intensely before. Sometimes he missed Keron but not as intenesly as he was currently missing his platoon.

 _I miss my friends. Without them...We're incomplete. We're five pieces of a whole. Alone I just don't feel right._ Keroro put his finger on his feelings.

 _A platoon isn't a platoon without at least five members. And a leader isn't a leader unless he has members. So right now...Without them, I am nothing._ He didn't know who or what he was.

He felt alone.

* * *

Giroro was in his flattened tent. He hadn't spoken to the rest of his platoon members very much. He was mostly dead silent.

This would be his last meaningful mission. He didn't know if he could do it, since apparently he was a failure. But it was a mission nonetheless.

 _I don't want to see any of them. Any of my former platoon mates._ He just wanted to pack up his things, disappear quietly and have things over and done with.

He felt nothingness. Meaningless. He had told the platoon time and time again that he was basically 'Mr. Invasion.' an Invader was who he was.

And apparently they weren't even invading. But even worse, Keron didn't want him as their soldier, their tool. He would die for them if they asked for it but they didn't want him.

He was flawed. He was one of the biggest idiots on Keron. One of the five they had chosen to be nothing more than bait.

And it was nobody fault except his own. They had chosen him before he started failing the Pekopon invasion. He was no soldier. He was just playing pretend.

Giroro slowly took down his tent, packing it up in his backpack. "I...I won't be returning here again. There's no need to watch the Hinata family. We won't be defeating them." He reminded himself numbly.

His tent needed to rest. Just like he did. He felt like some sort of gun that didn't have any bullets left in it.

He knew he had a mission, his last mission that he would put his heart and soul into, but after that...He wasn't sure what to do anymore.

"Giroro? G-giroro?" Giroro looked at the ground at a little grenade shaped walkie-talkie. Giroro didn't like using newer technology like cell phones. He preferred the good old fashioned way.

Giroro picked up the walkie-talkie, deciding to bring it with him. It was Keroro. "What?" His voice was angry at Keroro for even disturbing him.

"Well...I just wanted to talk." Keroro admitted. "I'm in the basement packing and I...I'm beginning to doubt this whole splitting up plan. Maybe our platoon works best together?"

"Didn't you hear what the colonel said? Our platoon doesn't work at all." Giroro said harshly.

Keroro was quiet for a moment. The words had clearly gotten to him. "You know...Even though our invasion was a lie and we're only in this platoon because we're all failures, I'm glad you were with me. I'll always be your friend Giroro. You were my first friend in childhood and that nostalgia and you is very important to me."

"I don't care. All I care about right now is doing the mission. I'll save Pekopon." Giroro threw his walkie talkie aside.

Keroro's words were unimportant to him. He cast Keroro's friendship aside.

Having his backpack ready, Giroro got his hovercraft all ready. "Okay...I guess it's time to go now." Giroro looked at the Hinata House one last time before he readied for blast off.

"WAIT!" The glass doors opened and Natsumi ran out in a hurry. She reached out her hand to stop Giroro.

Giroro didn't blast off quiet yet. He knew Natsumi was catching her breath and seemed to want to say something to him.

 _She must have come to say good-bye._ He realized. This was their romantic and bitter-sweet last meeting after all.

He closed his eyes for a moment as Natsumi caught her breath. She was in a huge hurry to catch him before he left after all.

" _Do you have to leave for the war?"_ His imagination conjured up an image of Natsumi as his wife giving a tearful good-bye to her husband (Giroro) who was a soldier.

" _I'm sorry. It's my duty."_ Super tall version of Giroro said as he held Natsumi. _"But I'll return to you someday and we'll finally have our peaceful life together."_

" _I brought you a gun. Every time you destroy someone with it, think of me."_ Imaginary Natsumi said romantically.

" _My wife...I love you so much. I'll think of you every night when I look up at the stars."_ Giroro told her.

" _And I won't ever marry another. I'll remember you by lighting fireworks that remind me of gunpowder and the war."_ Natsumi referenced a war that didn't exist.

Giroro started sniffling. His imagination was so beautiful! _But...That probably won't happen._ He reminded, glancing at the empty spot his tent was. _...Because our good-bye is only a tearful one. It's a final good-bye. Because...I'm not going to come back._

When he looked at Natsumi, he realized that this was his full decision. She might have been the love of his life, but every time he looked at her he remembered his sins of how he had fallen in love with a Pekoponian and failed his people. He knew Keron was right about him being an idiot when he looked at Natsumi.

 _The invasion might have been false so it wasn't nearly as bad when I screwed it up over and over again for Natsumi, but she still changed me. I still fell in love with the enemy and Natsumi is my greatest sin. Being near her will be a constant reminder that Keron is right. I am a failure._ Giroro realized.

 _So likely I will not be returning to her._ It wasn't like Natsumi cared anyway.

She was just here to say good-bye to a friend.

"It's all right, catch your breath." Giroro told her. "I shouldn't have tried to leave without saying good-bye to you. You've really shaped my life on Pekopon." Giroro tried to give a quick good-bye, although he remained a little distant.

"Where are you going to look for the flies?" Natsumi asked, standing up straighter now. She had recovered.

"I'm planning to follow your father's path. He was proven to have a link to the flies, so I thought I'd follow the things he did. I want to find out where he first contacted the flies so I'll investigate the occult things he was investigating." Giroro replied seeing no reason to keep that a secret from Natsumi.

"So...You're going to Egypt?" Natsumi asked referencing the popular occult theory about the pyramids.

Giroro stared blankly. He knew Natsumi was no good with the occult, but still she had to know more than that. "Everybody knows the pyramids have nothing to do with the occult. Occult theories about them are dumb." He said simply. "Those are pekoponians's own accomplishments."

"So where do you plan to go then?" Natsumi asked.

"I asked Fuyuki about cryptoids, occult creatures that you can punch." Giroro's voice got slightly more excited. Even though he was miserable Natsumi always managed to get the idea of a fight in his head making him slightly more joyous.

"I don't think that's the definition of a cryptoid…." Natsumi wasn't 100% sure though.

"Anyway I'm going to the Himalayas's 's or better known as Nepal's mountain system." Giroro explained. "I nabbed some reports in your father's room that during a portion of his time he was investigating a creature known as ' **the Yeti'** or something like that. Best thing I have to go off of."

Natsumi frowned for a moment, a look of extreme worry going across her face. "Giroro...I don't know as much about aliens because they don't interest me as much as Fuyuki, but..."

"But?" Giroro asked.

"Aren't you a frog?" Natsumi asked.

"Not in all ways. I can't breathe underwater." Giroro pointed out. "My species doesn't lay eggs in the water for reproduction." _Stop bringing up reproduction around Natsumi!_ He just couldn't help but imagine their children and much he wanted to have kids with Natsumi.

"But...Are you cold-blooded?" Natsumi asked. "I mean...You and the stupid frog do seem to be more effected in extreme heat than us humans. I mean sure, I complain a lot about extreme heat, but you guys literally dry out!"

"What does me being cold-blooded have anything to do with me hunting down a Yeti?" Giroro asked and frowned.

Natsumi looked extremely worried. "It's a cold environment. Extremely cold. Colder than even most humans are used to."

"So? I'm a Keronian soldier. I don't back down from a challenge." Despite clearly not being a soldier anymore, he still boasted that he was one.

Natsumi frowned. _For anyone going to the Himalayas would be a dangerous mission. But for Giroro? It's a death sentence. And he's too macho and proud to realize it. He'll die if he goes there alone._

And in a second, Natsumi knew what she had to do. She didn't really understand the feelings Giroro was battling with about his invasion being a lie and being a fool of a soldier. But she knew that she didn't want her friend to die.

"Well then!" She smiled. "If you're going to follow my father's path, I'm coming with you." Natsumi insisted.

"W-what?" Giroro was startled. He didn't expect this.

"Maybe if I follow my father's footsteps I'll understand why he chose those flies over his family." Natsumi explained. "So I'm coming with you. I've already packed, that's why I was so out of breath. Let me just get my stuff-" She was always planning on going with Giroro for at least a small amount of time to make sure he was okay.

"N-no. No." Giroro shook his head. "You can't come." He insisted. _I...I had no intentions of taking Natsumi. I didn't even imagine in my wildest dreams that she would suggest coming along._

It wasn't that he didn't want to go on a dangerous journey with Natsumi, he liked working together with her, but she was still a painful reminder of his mistakes. That and he knew of the Himalayas. They were dangerous for anyone who wasn't raised in the area or used to high altitudes. Giroro had survival training but Natsumi likely would not be able to breathe in the environment.

"I'm coming." Natsumi put her foot down and stared conversationally straight into Giroro's eyes. "And that's final."

"I'm not going to the fun parts. I'm going to the densest snowy parts of the mountains! It's not a tourist destination. It's not a fun trip, Natsumi. It's dangerous!" Giroro realized as his voice strained he mostly didn't want Natsumi to come along out of worry.

He knew full well he was cold-blooded and this was the worst possible environment for him. He might die. But only one of them needed to die in the snowy mountains.

Pekoponians died there too. And he didn't want the mountains to take Natsumi. He wanted her to be safe.

"I know. But I have to go." Natsumi took Giroro's hands in hers. "For my father. I have to understand him." Her words were so full of determination that Giroro was rather startled.

He couldn't deny her goal, he wanted her to find resolution with her father too. To find the answers that she desperately sought.

In reality, Natsumi did not want to go to the Himalayas for Haru. It was fully because of worry for Giroro because she knew it was a more dangerous place for him. She knew he wouldn't take her though if he realized she was going to protect him.

 _He probably wouldn't take very well knowing I'm trying to be his protector. Luckily he's falling for my lie._ He wanted her to find the truth after all.

Giroro examined her eyes. "It's...It's dangerous."

"I'll be careful." Natsumi insisted.

"You don't have the survival training I have." Giroro reminded.

"We'll work together, offering each other what different skills we have." Natsumi suggested. _I don't think I can give you my warm blooded body though. But if you collapse perhaps I can get you down to a village. I have to figure out a way to protect you from your stupid decisions._

"Fine...You can come along as my partner in finding the flies." Giroro finally agreed.

 _Yes! I'll make sure you don't die, Giroro._ Natsumi was determined.

"But are you absolutely sure about this? I might be gone as long as four months. And you have a life. A normal life. You have school, friends. You can't just up and disappear!" Giroro reminded. "We're going far away."

Natsumi frowned. _School isn't as important as you dying Giroro._ "Everybody will die if Keron attacks to find the flies. That's more important than my social status and school. And I have good grades. I study well. I can make things up in school."

She wasn't like Saburo. She wasn't a slacker.

Giroro nodded. "A worthy effort. You want to protect your planet. You truly have a warrior's spirit."

Natsumi smiled and sighed in relief. Giroro was finally agreeing with her and willing to let her in to help- even if he didn't know she was trying to help. "Well then, partner." She spoke up. "Can you give me a minute to say good-bye to my Mom?"

"You were packed but you didn't get your good-byes in order?" Giroro asked.

Natsumi shook her head. "I saw you were leaving and didn't have the time."

Giroro nodded. "Say your good-byes. You should probably tell Koyuki, and Fuyuki where you're going too...I bet you want to say good-bye to Saburo as well." He said the name with extreme distaste.

Natsumi giggled a bit. "I don't need to say good-bye to any of them. Fuyuki will understand what I'm doing. Saburo won't be checking up on me, and I assume Koyuki's going off on her own journey of self-discovery to figure out what the colonel was talking about. But Mom will probably worry about me."

Giroro nodded.

And Natsumi quickly ran off to say her good-byes.

Her mother was in her room, trying to actually clean up and gain some control of her messes, perhaps she was trying to distract herself from the flies living inside her husband.

Natsumi almost pushed the door open to speak to her mother, but then she stopped herself. _I was the one person who was never going to leave her._ She realized. _Dad left. She had to send Fuyuki away to be raised by grandma...I was the only one there for her._

It would devastate Aki if she told her she was leaving for a long time, on the same quest her father had gone on. Aki especially wouldn't be able to deal with it in her current state.

But that didn't mean Natsumi could afford being grounded or something and kept at home. She needed to save Giroro from himself. This was more important than her mother's feeling's. This was her friend's life on the line.

 _I'll leave a letter...That way she'll know what happened._ Natsumi quickly wrote something up.

She tried to make it prompt. Short.

 _ **Dear Mom,**_

 _ **It's me, Natsumi. I'll be gone for the next four months maybe. I'm going with the frogs (Giroro) to look for those fly creatures.**_

 _ **I'm sorry, Mama. I won't be in school. I gotta do this. And it's got nothing to do with Dad or you, and there's no way to protect me.**_

 _ **Without me, Giroro will die. He's going to a place that's specifically dangerous for frogs. He's making a stupid bad decision and I need to be there to protect him. Please send me the strength to be strong and protect someone I care about so much.**_

 _ **I know you'd make the same choice. Please don't be mad or look for me. It's not because of you.**_

 _ **-Natsumi.**_

She left the letter and without saying her good-byes, she turned around and went. She needed to join Giroro.

* * *

Although Giroro had planned to take a hovercraft the Himalayas, it quickly became clear that Natsumi would not be able to travel over the ocean on one. They had to take a plane.

They only had to purchase one ticket since nobody knew about Giroro anyway. Giroro just had to sit in Natsumi's lab.

"I can sit up in the baggage." Giroro pointed out.

"Nah. We should probably figure out a plan of action." Natsumi looked at some travel pamphlets. She had never been to the Himalayas but she knew the higher you went the harder it was too breathe and the colder it got. She knew the specific place in the Himalayas where the yeti that Giroro was searching for was, but she didn't know how to get there.

"Climb the mountain. That's the plan." Giroro didn't sound like he was very excited for the mission. He just wanted to do.

"We'll have to hit a village before we go up the slope. For supplies, you know." Natsumi pointed out.

"I have supplies." Giroro replied.

"Specific mountaineering supplies. Most people who climb the mountains have someone to go with them and help them, a trained professional-"

"Oh so I'm not professional to you too?" Giroro asked, not insulted, just overly sensitive to criticism.

Natsumi ignored him. "But we won't be able to have anyone go with us because of you. Because you're an alien and all and we can't reveal you. So I guess it's just supplies and not help that we're picking up." She was now mostly talking to herself.

Giroro frowned. He didn't like being a hindrance. Natsumi felt Giroro slump a bit against her body. There was just a sort of feeling that he had given up or something.

* * *

Once they got to a little village in Nepal, Natsumi immediately went shopping for supplies. Giroro knew it might take a while so he waited at the little inn room they booked.

"Natsumi. I know you might think you can do this, but the facts remain that you still have very little mountaineering experience." Giroro pointed out. "If you want to back out-"

"No." Natsumi insisted.

"Okay. Then we should be as prepared as possible. I'd hate it if you got hurt while you were with me. We should spend several days preparing." Giroro suggested.

Natsumi nodded. She could agree with him on that.

* * *

It was more than several days that she spent preparing. It was a week. And every night Natsumi practicing breathing exercises.

The first few breathing exercises Giroro had taught her so she could have stronger lungs. But now she was practicing them while Giroro was asleep.

 _I need to be tougher._ She thought to herself, unbuttoning her shirt to do push ups. If she got more used to the cold temperature it would be easier for her. And she was trying to push herself to her limit without getting any sort of hypothermia.

The locals seemed to like her, and an old woman was helping her get teas and remedies to help her with the risks of hypothermia during her secret exercises.

As she sweated and moved onto the hundredth set of push-ups on one arm, she felt her core muscles tightening. She was becoming tougher, but she still wasn't quite sure she could climb a mountain.

 _I have to be the toughest of the two of us._ She reminded. She was going to be the one carrying them after all. The one that would protect Giroro.

Giroro could not know she felt that she needed to protect him though. She had sensed that he was looking and acting a little depressed. He wasn't trying as hard- the old Giroro she knew would have insisted they already climb the mountain because they didn't have very much time.

This Giroro helped carry supplies, read maps, but turned away from Natsumi and slept an awful lot. He was very clearly depressed.

And Natsumi didn't know how to help him besides making sure he didn't die on this huge task and mission.

Giroro started to stir in his sleep.

Natsumi hurriedly sat up. _I don't know how he'll react to my secret exercise regime. The old Giroro would have made it tougher and would have been rather impressed and would try to compete with me._ But this Giroro wasn't as excited about action. He was in a lull. _I think this Giroro wouldn't want me to push myself any more than the breathing exercises. He would feel like he wasn't good enough to protect me on my quest to understand my father._

She knew Giroro. She could pretend that she didn't like the frogs or understand them, but she knew Giroro would do anything to protect her and keep her safe. He really did care about her friendship.

Even knowing his invasion was a lie he still valued her safety and he might feel like he failed her if he knew she was more worried for him than he was worried for her.

She didn't understand why they couldn't be both worried for each other, or why he couldn't let her have this one time to protect him.

"N-natsumi? I heard heavy breathing? Are you okay? Are you cold?" Giroro asked. He handed her a blanket. "You can use this if you want."

They were sleeping on the floor.

Natsumi shook her head. "Nah! I'm fine. I was just…." She needed to think up an excuse quickly.

Giroro looked at her. And after a moment Natsumi realized he was deeply crimson. He was blushing. "Y-you're...In your underwear."

 _Oh crap. Yeah. I forgot. CRAP. Now he'll realize I was trying to get used to the temperature._ Getting used to the temperature wasn't really a bad thing though, perhaps she just better tell him the truth since the cold wasn't something Giroro could protect her from.

She hoped Giroro wouldn't be offended or sensitive about her training to withstand the cold while he was asleep.

Natsumi covered her breasts with her arms. "Um...Y-yeah, see while you were asleep I was-"

Giroro put his hand up. "Y-you..You don't need to tell me. D-don't push yourself." Giroro reassured. "I'm just...I'm going to go take a cold shower. Bye."

Giroro just up and walked away.

Natsumi watched him go, slightly confused. _That worked out...Well? But I have this sinking suspicion that he misunderstood what I was doing._ Honestly the more she thought about it, the more she blushed.

She didn't really ever want to talk about this again. It was going to be hard to meet Giroro's eyes in the morning.

Since Giroro was probably not coming back she kept training. He might have been giving her her privacy or he might have been dead. Natsumi didn't know and she wasn't going to find out.

* * *

They were almost prepared. Natsumi was looking through the supplies that both Giroro and she had. "So we've got food rations. Warm coats, gloves..." She started looking through the stuff.

"And I brought back up stuff for you. Just to make sure you're extra warm and safe." Giroro reassured.

He let Natsumi go through his bag completely, and as Natsumi unpacked it she realized something.

 _He...He only has rations for me. He's packing mostly for me. Not for himself._ He wasn't taking care of himself at all.

She gave Giroro a pout and glared at him, hoping he'd understand that she was frustrated with him.

Giroro wasn't paying attention to packing though. Instead he had his attention focused elsewhere. "BUG!" He yelled. He jumped into the air and started swatting at it with his hands. "I'll take care of that disgusting and vile creature." He pulled out his guns and started shooting at the fly.

"Giroro! This is over the top-" Natsumi tried to stop him, she was about to take a step forward, when she realized he wasn't just trying to swat at a bug.

 _It reminds him of those fly aliens that were so important to Keron. And he's taking his anger out on it._ She wanted to stop him. To scold him, but could she really hypocritically call him out on that behavior when she did the very same when she was enraged by something?

Once Giroro had blown a few holes in the wall trying to get at the fly, he cursed. "I'll get you when I find that Yeti. I'll find your home."

Natsumi frowned, mostly in pity. It wasn't just anger Giroro was feeling- it was rage at any insect. She hadn't noticed it very often in the week but every time Giroro encountered a bug he flew into a rage.

"G-giroro..." Natsumi tried to speak with him.

"I know, I know. We should finish packing. Don't worry. I'm paying attention. After all, I want you to be as safe as possible." Giroro reassured.

And he went back to packing only things for Natsumi. And she continued to not know what to do.

* * *

She didn't really have a word for it. What Giroro was doing. Irrational anger all the time? Perhaps. But then why was he sometimes so nonactive, so unexcited and not very focused on the mission.

She hadn't yet diagnosed it as depression. After all, it was hard to understand how important the invasion was to the keronians.

It was the last night that they would spend in the little village, they had decided to set out the next morning. Giroro was sleeping in the same room as her again which was nice.

He had given her some time alone after that naked exercise fiasco. He usually came to bed rather late now, so she could have some 'private time' as he called it.

That night she went to sleep early, but woke up around midnight. She glanced over to Giroro to see if he was in his own blanket nest yet.

He was, and he was reading something. She could tell because he had a little flashlight.

 _A map?_ She wondered.

As she looked she could clearly tell what it was from the tan coloring. It was a file folder. She could barely read the title and the outside of it. " _CORPORAL GIRORO "_

A flash of what the file was ran through her mind. She remembered the colonel throwing five files on the ground- the files that described why the Keroro platoon were the biggest idiots on Keron and hand-picked for the bait mission.

With utter horror Natsumi realized that Giroro had been focused and still thinking about this file the entire time they were preparing to find the Yeti together. _Has he read it every night? Is that why he's so out of it?_

He was depressed. It was plain and simple. If anybody had a file telling them all their failures that they read every night they'd be depressed too.

 _Giroro—_ Natsumi was just about to sit up and tell him what she had seen, to reach out to him to offer a shoulder to cry on, to talk to, but then she stopped herself.

 _Maybe he'd see it as an insult if I offered help. Maybe I just have to believe in Giroro that he'll be able to rise above what they say. Maybe that's the best way to help him. To be on his side and to believe in him._ She decided.

He'd do the same for her. Sure he'd offer to talk to her too, but more than anything he'd have faith that she could handle her emotions herself.

She needed to respect that Giroro would talk about his file when he wanted to.

* * *

The next day they finally started their trek up the Himalaya mountains where the yeti had been most commonly sighted.

"Do you think we'll actually find the Yeti?" Natsumi asked. "I mean I don't really believe in cryptoids." She admitted.

"Your father tried to find it." Giroro replied. "And he's proven that a lot of the occult things Fuyuki and him believed in were true."

They weren't even starting to climb directly vertically yet. They were still at the more rocky parts, but it was becoming dramatically colder, less and less plant life growing. The mountain range was much harder than either of them had envisioned.

Giroro was beginning to shiver.

"G-giroro." Natsumi had plenty of coats on, she moved forward to scoop him up. She was getting cold, but she wasn't shivering, and her oxygen reserves seemed to actually be larger than Giroro's due to having just bigger lungs.

"These mountains appear to be tough. But not as tough as Pekopon boasted." Giroro acted tough. "I'll beat and conquer them, just like I'll beat Pekopon." He laughed.

Natsumi shook her head. She didn't know if Giroro could conquer them.

The two climbed higher and higher, hours and hours passed, until it was all snow. It was harsh and snowing and Natsumi had to put on goggles so that the sleet didn't get in her eyes. She coughed for a second from just how tough it was to breathe.

Giroro glanced over, but not for long. "The air is getting denser. More tough to.. breathe." He didn't let himself cough, but it was clear he was struggling. His body was turning blue from the harsh cold and he was moving slower.

"Giroro!" Natsumi ran over ready to catch him if he fell. It was looking like he'd suffer from hypothermia, lose a leg or die. They needed to get someplace safer.

"Wait!" Giroro stopped her from talking. He pointed into the snow storm. "I see something! It's bigger than a man! It's..It's the pictures of the Yeti!"

Natsumi narrowed her eyes. She saw something shadowy, but it could be just the snow.

Giroro pulled out a gun which was frozen in a coat of ice. He also pulled out a little cage that Kululu had made for each of them to hold the flies. "Stay here, Natsumi! If there's a landslide I don't want you getting caught in it. I'll be right back." He yelled. He then ran off into the dense parts of the storm as fast as he could to follow the shadow of the Yeti.

"Giroro no! We shouldn't split up!" They wouldn't be able to find each other again.

Not only that, but she could handle a landslide much better than him. She was fairing much better than him.

Although Giroro had pretty much booked it after the shadow-y yeti figure, Natsumi followed him and didn't listen.

"I'll get you- Where are you?" Giroro called. "AUGH! Was it a mirage all along? I really am a failure!" He yelled. He started blasting his gun in the snow.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

The loud noises generated a rumbling in the ground. And Natsumi knew from experience it was no earthquake.

 _An avalanche._ She realized. She couldn't see Giroro. She could only hear his voice and his loud cursing from chasing after a fake Yeti mirage, but she knew instinctively where he was.

It was just her senses as the pile of snow came down like a wave. She managed to jump and avoid it, despite her lack of oxygen. She could jump up remarkably high and managed to not be swept up in the snow.

Finding a large boulder to hide behind until the avalanche had settled down, she knew Giroro had gotten caught in it. "GIRORO! GIRORO!" She yelled louder and louder hoping that he'd be able to hear her.

It was still snowing rather thickly, but she walked around the new layer of snow, looking for any signs of a dull red color. Her feet happened across something.

She reached down and picked it up. It was a belt. Giroro's.

 _He has to be under this._ He was probably dying under there, being crushed by all the snow. Not even carrying about her freezing hands, Natsumi started to dig.

She dug and dug until her hands were raw and sore, and eventually she reached the tiny crumpled keronian body.

She didn't waste time screaming Giroro's name or trying to shake him awake. She knew he was badly damaged and hurt and they didn't have enough time to go down the mountain. She held Giroro in her arms, looking for somewhere to keep him that was safe so she could assess the damage.

 _I shouldn't have even let him come to this mountain. I was being stupid thinking that just my presence could stop Giroro from being stupid. This is the most dangerous place in the world for Giroro. He'll die because I couldn't save him._ She thought to herself.

She tried to silence her brain, focusing only on survival. That was something Giroro was very used to.

It didn't take long to find a small cave. She hurried inside not frightened if any large animals were hiding inside it. She would kick them out if they were.

Luckily it was empty.

She set Giroro down and quickly used some fire starting supplies to start a fire, something that Giroro had taught her. She needed to keep him warm.

Her hand roamed over his chest looking for his heart beat or pulse. _I never...Asked where keronian hearts were located. Fuyuki would know how to assess his biology, but I don't._ She cursed her own ignorance.

Eventually she found a pulse though. A weak one. He was very cold, mostly frozen solid, but he was alive.

She sighed in relief. "Thank god." Still he would probably die within the next ten minutes if he didn't keep warm.

She couldn't think of anything besides fire though. She opened her backpack desperately looking for blankets or coats, but anything she put on Giroro didn't help him.

She only had one other idea.

"Look, Giroro. I don't like this anymore than you do. But if it will get you not to die, I'll do it." She grimaced and unbuttoned her coat and shirt. After barely a second of thinking she discarded the bra too for maximum contact. She quickly shoved Giroro in the shirt with her and buttoned it up.

It wasn't too bad. Tamer than anything Momoka had come up with involving her brother in the nude in the snow with Momoka.

And Natsumi could see color slowly returning to Giroro. She squeezed him tighter. Not quite a hug, but just to press their bodies together. Maybe if she was closer to him he'd just kind of become a warm-blooded creature.

She knew that wouldn't work, but she didn't know how aliens worked.

She held him for hours, rubbing his back and putting on more and more layers of coats to get him warmer.

Finally, after a while, Giroro's eyes fluttered open and he woke up. The first thing he saw was not Natsumi's face but a face full of boob.

"W-what…? Wait...WHAT. WHAT. WHAT." Giroro just screamed, completely embarrassed.

Natsumi was leaning on the cave wall, trying to keep comfortable while not becoming obsessed with worry for her friend.

Natsumi didn't immediately discard him from her shirt when he woke up. "Stop screaming. It's uncomfortable and loud." She tried to move his face out of her shirt so she could test his temperature with her hand.

Giroro was bright red.

"God, you're burning up. This is the opposite of what you were an hour ago. Are you sick? We'll have to get you to the village then, so I can get materials to help you-" Natsumi asked.

Giroro tried to move his legs away from Natsumi's naked stomach, or just get out of shirt prison. "No. I assure you the warmth is probably from embarrassment. Not sickness."

"Oh...Well, that's actually great and convenient. Embarrassment might have just saved your life, Giroro." Natsumi pointed out.

"That would be a first." Giroro said sarcastically. "Umm...Are you going to...Let me off of you soon?"

Natsumi frowned. "It's not like I'm enjoying this, you know. It's just...It it warming you up. But I guess it worked, so yeah..." She unbuttoned to let Giroro free.

Giroro made sure to close his eyes, although he was still blushing a lot. He didn't think he'd forget that. "Why..W-why did you...Why did I awaken to my face in your breasts…?" Had he forgotten something.

Natsumi sighed. "You were dying. I tried my best to save you. So don't blame me!"

"I...I was dying?" Giroro asked. "Ah yes...I chased after what I thought was a Yeti but was just my own imagination."

Natsumi reached over to him, having put her clothes back on properly. "You were about to die, Giroro. We should have never come here. I don't know what I would do if I lost you. You're my friend and I was so scared and worried-" She was about to hug him.

Giroro side-stepped away at the mention that she was scared and worried. "So you saved me." He observed.

"Yes. I wasn't going to let you die!" Natsumi frowned. This wasn't the time to be offended. She took Giroro's hand. "I don't care about my father's footsteps anymore. Who cares about the Yeti? Let's leave this place. It's too dangerous. We both could die here, Giroro." Natsumi was done pretending to act tough. She was scared. Her friend had almost died in front of her.

Giroro tightened his grip on her hand. "I'll protect you. But if you don't think I can protect you we can return you to your home..."

Natsumi shook her head tiredly and almost childishly. She was tired of keeping the truth from Giroro. "I'm worried about you, Giroro. I'll be fine. I have bigger lungs than you, I'm warm-blooded. But you...You have none of those things. You're going to die here."

Giroro stared at her for a second. _She's...Worried about me? Not herself?_ It didn't take him long to piece together all of Natsumi's actions.

Her need to gather supplies, take more time to start their trek. It was never to be prepared for herself. It was because of him. It wouldn't make sense if Natsumi, the warrior princess, needed help. She wanted to protect him because she was worried about him.

Had she even come here for her father? Or was it to watch after him?

 _I'm the one dragging our group down._ He realized. _We'll never find any flyians with me in this group. The Yeti will forever be elusive. I'll get us both killed. I'm bringing us down._

Natsumi knew this. He knew this. How could he be such a fool to try to keep it from her?

Giroro looked at Natsumi for a second with sorrowful eyes. "Are...Are you so worried about me because you heard what the colonel said about me? Did you read the file he wrote? Did you realize all my failures?" The only anger in his voice was at himself.

Natsumi sat down. The depression was finally exhibiting itself directly to her. And perhaps Giroro wanted to talk.

"No. I didn't read it. But I heard what the colonel said." She admitted.

Giroro looked like he'd been stabbed. He definitely believed that Natsumi thought less of him because of him being one of Keron's biggest idiots.

Finally he spoke, "...You know, the invasion was everything to me. It was my identity. It was what I was meant to do."

"You have other things. You're a really great marksman. I don't think you were meant to invade. You were meant to protect people, like you did against the Garuru platoon-" Natsumi tried to give him a speech to get his confidence up and persuade him away from invasion.

"My family was a militaristic family. The military was everything to all of us." Giroro wasn't listening. He was just sort of numbly talking.

Natsumi quieted down. She never really heard about Giroro's family, besides about Garuru or a letter from Giroro's father.

"My mother. Heh. She even trained me before children were supposed to be trained for military duty." Giroro continued speaking.

"Your...Mom?" Natsumi asked. She had never even heard of Giroro's mother.

"She handed me a gun before I could even speak. I could have blown my face off. But I didn't. Nobody in my family did. Because we were meant to shoot. To fight." Giroro sounded like he had a sense of pride in his voice.

"A...A baby shouldn't handle a gun, Giroro..." Natsumi tried to tell him. She suspected Giroro knew that at least deep down.

"Both of my parents hated each other. Bad arranged marriage, I guess. Still, they would meet every so often to see my brother and I. I'm sure Mom thought we'd bring honor to the family. Both of them did." Giroro explained. "When they were together what kept the arguing to a minimum was pride over Garuru's militaristic accomplishments. It was the only times they wouldn't fight."

Natsumi was now listening quietly. She knew of families very briefly like those, but she had never known Giroro had come from a family with a messy divorce.

"I was supposed to be like that. I was supposed to make them proud with my achievements in the military. With invasion. But I failed." Giroro continued covering his ears as if he was trying to keep the screams out of his mind.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm at fault that you failed your invasion. I stood in the way of it." Didn't mean she would have changed anything but Natsumi still felt the need to apologize since Giroro was suffering.

Giroro shook his head. "Not your fault. You were trying to defend your planet. It was admirable."

Natsumi tightened her grip on his hand, holding it. "But...You're still worried about failing."

"No, the invasion's failure has to be Keroro's fault. Maybe he told Keron that Dororo and I were bad soldiers...He's somehow at fault for this. He always is. He shifts the blame so much!" Giroro sounded angry and was looking for someone that wasn't Natsumi or him to blame.

"...Did you work with the stupid frog before Earth?" Natsumi asked.

Giroro looked distressed. He hadn't worked with Keroro for all his missions. He sighed knowing full well he was a failure all on his own. "Thinking back on it, on Keron there were probably two warning signs that I could never be the perfect soldier that I wanted to be. That I was a failure like they said I was."

"You aren't a-" Yet again Giroro didn't let Natsumi finish.

"I always displayed unnecessary violence and anger. In ways that made you unfit to be a Keron soldier. It couldn't be controlled even if I tried to use a soldier's discipline to control it. It just exploded and blew up and then I would angrily chew out a higher officer for being stupid." Giroro sighed.

"You think that's why they put you on the mission to Earth?" Natsumi asked.

"I know so. It was in the file. I did it several times. It wasn't just Keroro that I verbally yelled at and blew up at. He's my leader and yet I showed a severe lack of discipline." Giroro growled in annoyance at himself. "I know it was a side-effect of my mother's training, the whole fiasco didn't end well, but...I should have been a better soldier."

Natsumi didn't really know what to say. The way he made it sound sounded an awful lot like abuse. That wasn't Giroro's fault.

"My second failure isn't my anger, but that I have a soft heart. I never put my whole heart into Keron." Giroro sighed, humiliated by this one. "I could never fully commit ever. I had a softer side than a soldier was meant to have. I was supposed to just do as I was told and never question."

"And you didn't?" Natsumi asked thinking back to when the frogs had tried to murder her father.

"I would let children go in war. I didn't think they had any place in getting captured and murdered. But I guess Keron saw that as letting the enemy go. Not fully committing." Giroro tucked his knees under his chin and looked annoyed.

Natsumi was overwhelmed by the urge to hug him. _That's not bad! That makes you a better person than them!_

"Obviously that was in the report too. I mean the public themselves also knew about my soft heart. The people themselves would often joke about how I was the type that would most likely " _fall in love with the enemy."_ Giroro quoted the term with air quotes.

"I swore I wouldn't when going off to Pekopon. But hey! I couldn't even do _that_ right." Giroro pounded his fist on the cave wall, furious.

It wasn't the people who wrote the report mocking him that made him mad. It was himself for failing his planet.

Natsumi didn't really understand. Now he was ranting.

"My two greatest sins were in that file. How I couldn't commit and my soft heart betraying Keron and the invasion at every possible moment, I mean even now I have one last mission for Keron and I'm thinking more about your safety than it!" Giroro pointed out, "And how I'm easily prone to anger."

Natsumi frowned. "I don't really know what you're talking about with the whole falling in love with the enemy thing. I lost you there." She admitted, trying to take a lighter tone, so he could stop ranting and remember she was there for him.

"Oh. Uhhh..." He blushed.

"But anger is something I've had a lot of trouble with too." She agreed. "You can hold it back, but it always lashes out." She tried to relate. "But I've learned that it can be used to protect others. So it's something I'm more okay with now." She smiled.

Giroro listened to her.

"And Keron's an idiot if they punish you for your soft heart and love! They're the ones who are in the wrong. None of your traits that you listed make you a failure." She punched the inside of her palm as if she was getting ready to fight Keron.

"But...Keron...Keron is the number one thing in the universe. It's my home. It's what I exist to protect." Giroro couldn't believe that Keron was wrong.

"Listen to me, Giroro." Natsumi placed her hands on his cheeks and made his face turn to hers so they could look each other in the eyes. "You're better than Keron." She gave him a motivational speech. "You'll always have a place with me and by my side. Abandon Keron and embrace here as your home. The Hinata House can be your home if you let it."

Giroro stared at her for a moment. "That's all well and good, Natsumi." He spoke up. "But my entire life is a lie." He reminded. "That's life changing. What would you do if you realized your whole life was a lie and was built up for nothing? That you were unwanted by your home and couldn't bring honor to your family? That you had failed?"

Natsumi thought for a moment trying to give Giroro a truthful and satisfying answer. "...I'd probably be stubborn at first." She admitted. "I wouldn't let people in to help me."

"So you'd just let your anger burn down forests? Would you fight against your planet?" Giroro asked.

"Eventually though...I think my soft heart would betray me. I would let my _**friends**_ you know, the people who didn't betray me, like you, help me. I would let you in." Natsumi replied.

Giroro nodded. Her answer sufficient enough for him.

Natsumi scooted closer. "Giroro...Please let me-"

"You want to help me? I know what you're going to ask." Giroro finished her sentence and nodded.

"Our body temperatures are different. The real reason I came here was not for my father but because I was worried about you. Screw Haru, he was never there for me. I've tried to understand enough. You however have helped me throughout a lot of our time together." Natsumi paused. "This environment is dangerous for specifically you. Let me help you."

Giroro looked pained for a moment. He took a step back. "I...I can't let you help me."

"Why? Giroro this is not the time to be too proud. I thought you acknowledged that I was a warrior and tougher than you!" Natsumi pointed out. "What do you always call me? Warrior princess or something?"

"I can't let you help me because you are the problem. You symbolize my failures, Natsumi. You're what made my heart so incredibly soft and non-committed to Keron." Giroro's voice was like a harsh cry as if he didn't want to confess this.

Natsumi didn't yell at him or start being offended. He may have insulted her, but she knew it wasn't her that he was blaming fully. It was mostly him. So she hugged him.

She pulled him into her arms as he cried.

"I'm a failure. I did exactly as I said I wouldn't. It was never Keroro or Dororo who was the biggest failure of this platoon. It was me. Even if the lie about our invasion was never revealed I wanted to stay here forever pretending to invade and playing pretend at being strong." Giroro cried.

Natsumi held him tighter.

"I wanted to stay, but never to succeed. I knew you'd be sad if we actually invaded so I always stopped it last minute. But I blew up in anger whenever Keroro didn't invade! I truly am the worst soldier!" Giroro complained.

Natsumi pat his back.

"I fell for all the praise Keron gave me. All the false hopes. Because I'm a stupid idiot too. They remarked on my low intelligence." Giroro complained. "I'm a failure." He sobbed and repeated again.

Natsumi didn't speak very much, she just was the shoulder Giroro needed to cry on. She pat his back and let him tightly hold her.

"I did something that no other Keronian can even joke or boast that they do. I fell for the enemy. I'm a failure." Giroro repeated again.

Natsumi couldn't help but speak now. "Who?" She had never heard of Giroro being in love with anyone.

"I...Natsumi...You were the one I found myself falling in love with. You're what I sacrificed Keron and the invasion for this entire time." Giroro's sobs became more stifled and his grip on the back of her coat tightened. Perhaps he only half realized he had confessed but he didn't really care.

Natsumi didn't let go despite this newfound realization that Giroro was in love with her. Instead she wrapped her arms around him tighter. "We don't have to look for the flies here...Let's go **home.** " She suggested, referring to the Hinata House as both of their home.

Giroro stopped crying for a moment. He pulled his head away from her shoulder to give a quick shy nod. He was done fighting against her. She was right. He shouldn't have chosen this place to look for the flies. "You're right. This is no place for either of us."

She smiled at him.

Giroro knew Natsumi was just being the best friend anyone could ask for, but his heart soar. _Probably shouldn't have cried so much. And AUGH! I confessed to her!_ He regretted it already. He was embarrassed and all his attempts at trying to impress Natsumi were now down the drain because literally the worst way to confess to her was by crying on her shoulder.

It was not romantic and she was probably not interested at all and he honestly didn't want to talk about it. He wanted to just hope that she would never mention it to him again so he could not hide in shame.

Natsumi took Giroro's hand so that they wouldn't get split up. And finally they exited the cave.

* * *

The snow storm wasn't as intense at the moment. And going down the hill Giroro spotted the large shadowy figure again that he had mistaken as a Yeti.

He didn't let go of Natsumi. He wasn't going to rush off this time in a futile mission.

"Good." Natsumi smiled.

The figure started getting larger and larger and eventually it was within their sight. It blended into the snow but it was twice the size of a large human man- covered in white fur.

It's claw like hands extended, large sharp teeth in it's mouth. It's eyes were icy blue and looked furious.

It was a Yeti.

"It's the Yeti, Natsumi! We found it!" Giroro realized. Perhaps it only showed itself to people no longer looking for it?

But it wasn't just the Yeti that Giroro realized was there. With his eagle like eyes he noticed what was in the Yeti's skin, and his ears picked up the sound that he usually didn't distinguish.

Buzzing. There was a harsh and grating buzzing sound. And in the raw leathery like palms of the yeti were bulges moving around.

The flies were laying eggs, and they were feasting.

"GROSS! I'm glad Fuyuki isn't here!" Natsumi jumped backwards as the yeti brought down it's hulking claw trying to hit her.

"GRRR!" The Yeti roared and it opened it's palm. Suddenly snow started falling down, along with hail. The sky darkened.

"That has to be a coincidence. It doesn't control the weather!" Natsumi decided.

The Yeti grabbed a boulder and threw it. Natsumi, holding Giroro jumped and dodged it. She knew Giroro might be too cold to dodge on his own.

"It could be the flyians. I remember when we fought Haru as a platoon he managed to take us all out. He could have just been smart, but maybe they grant extreme power...Like they did for the keronians." Giroro pointed out.

"I thought they needed to be digested to get the power?" Natsumi reminded.

"Maybe they give it to other races in exchange for something else. I'm not sure what though." Giroro shrugged. That was some impressive power though.

"Is it all right if I put you down briefly? We need to catch those flies." Natsumi frowned. They had been leaving but now they were pretty much handed the flyians.

They had to get them. For the planet's sake.

Giroro nodded.

Natsumi put him on the ground and grinned at the Yeti. She rushed forward and punched, managing to get one hit into it's leg. "I don't like the occult, but I love punching it!"

The Yeti roared in pain, but as he shook off Natsumi, she realized that one punch was all she could get in. Her footing would be lost in the snow and so she couldn't move very well for a fight.

As she tried to slip to the Yeti's back to hit him again the Yeti swung his arm forward and clawed at Natsumi's body. Due to the snow, lack of vision and her foot being stuck in the snow, she got hit.

"AHHH!" She screamed in pain. She really shouldn't have screamed so loud due to lack of oxygen.

"Natsumi!" Giroro yelled, Natsumi falling to the ground, slowly becoming covered by the new snow. He could see bits of blood trickle under the snow but she was becoming less and less visible.

Despite the fact that he wasn't accustomed to cold temperatures, and had less oxygen reserves than Natsumi and was generally less tough, he snapped. Seeing Natsumi hurt, he just couldn't allow.

He summoned a gun in each hand. He would fight this Yeti and destroy him even if he died on this mountain. He'd protect Natsumi.

"Nobody. Nobody is allowed to hurt Natsumi!" Giroro yelled and started shooting at the Yeti.

The Yeti put it's hands over it's head to protect itself. But it's anger faded. Instead frightened by the new weapon that was a gun it ran.

 _The flyians._ Giroro realized. They were with the Yeti. He almost took a step forward to chase after it, but stopped himself.

Natsumi's life was more important. Natsumi's health was always more important.

He turned his back on the fleeing Yeti and went to her side. He brushed the snow off of her and helped her up. "We gotta go back to the cave. Bandage you up-" Giroro hurriedly spoke.

"Why aren't you chasing it?" Natsumi moaned. "It's got the flyians. You need that for your bet with the colonel." She sounded weak. Hurt. She was pressing her hand against her side where the Yeti had clawed her.

"Your safety is more important to me than any stupid bet." Giroro told her.

"But the bet is basically fighting for Earth's safety!" Natsumi argued. "Giroro..." She sighed. "I love the person you've become on Pekopon. I love you too, but you can't focus on just me. We need to do the right thing and chase those flies. I know I said we should go home, but we're so close."

Giroro tried not to focus on the love confession or romance. "But you're injured and I'm...! I'm freezing to death!" He reminded.

Natsumi stood up, trying not to wince in pain. "I'm good. And you...We've figured out a way to keep you warm."

"I can't shoot well if I'm in your shirt, Natsumi." Giroro replied.

Natsumi leaned down and pulled him into a kiss.

Giroro was completely taken by shock and surprise. He froze for a second as his temperature sky-rocketed and his face turned even redder than usual.

She pulled away after a hurried minute of kissing. "Your temperature rises a whole lot when you're embarrassed. Is that a biological Keronian thing or is that just your weird psychics…?" She was referring to anime psychics.

Giroro just blushed and touched his own lips. "I...I don't know." He admitted. His mind was just repeating the same words over and over again. _Natsumi kissed me. Natsumi kissed me. Natsumi likes me. Natsumi kissed me._

Natsumi smiled a bit teasingly. "Come on, let's go. We gotta find that Yeti."

Giroro nodded, kind of out of it. He was way too lovesick for his own good.

* * *

They managed to follow the Yeti's tracks with Giroro's tracking skills. Not all of them were fully covered by snow yet.

And they eventually reached the Yeti's lair, it's cave. It was dark and all Giroro had was a flashlight to illuminate it.

He followed Natsumi inside.

"Look at these." Natsumi pointed. They were weird cave drawings of Yeti's. "I wonder if caveman drew them."

"Or the Yeti's themselves." Giroro speculated.

The drawings seemed to show the Yeti's holding out their hands as flies came down from the sun. In the next picture the Yeti's had huge amounts of power over snowstorms and were holding giant boulders with some sort of super strength. The third picture had the Yeti's looking almost skeletal, weak and tired and dying. They were giving the flies wrapped boxes and presenting them. Or 'gifts'.

Clearly there was some exchange going on, power for something else. But it wasn't clear what.

"Art is weird." Was Giroro's very intellectual commentary.

Natsumi nodded. She grabbed the flashlight out of Giroro's hand and used it to look around the lair more. The light shined on the Yeti.

This time the Yeti didn't move. It sounded as if it was wheezing in it's cave that was much too tiny for it.

" _They're not leaving. The keronian must have come for us."_ The buzzing was starting to form panicked words.

" _We'll have to leave then. This host is dying anyway."_ Another fly replied.

Natsumi knew what was about to happen, she still wasn't mentally prepared for it. The flies erupted from the Yeti's body in a much more painful fashion then they had from Haru. The flesh just ripped open like a trash bag with a hole in it. It didn't heal. And thousands upon thousands of flies zoomed out, filling the air with darkness.

Giroro was ready though. He tossed Natsumi a cage and moving as quickly as he could, using the energy of his lovesickness and Natsumi's kiss to his aid, he caught the flyians in the cage.

Natsumi caught the ones trying to escape and at the fringes.

And soon enough they had them all from the Yeti.

They had succeeded in their mission. They had secured a huge amount of flyians.

"Now...Now let's get off this mountain. And never return. I don't want to come back here." Natsumi decided.

Giroro nodded.

He was ready to re-enter society.

It had been a full month since they had left Japan.

* * *

It took a long time for them to get to the bottom of the mountain range, and both of them were extremely tired. Not to mention Natsumi was still injured.

She collapsed on the ground once they finally reached the bottom.

"Natsumi!" Giroro was cold but he was still super worried about her.

"I-I'm fine." She reassured. "Just lost a lot of blood is all."

A local approached Natsumi since she had collapsed in the middle of the street. "Oh dear...She's awfully hurt...The mountain range again?"

"Aww crap he won't be able to hear me." Giroro realized. "Help her! Give her blood."

The local looked at Giroro, who had his anti-barrier on.

"I can hear and see you." The local replied.

Giroro frowned. "H-how?"

"I...I'm interested in the Occult." The local replied. "I'm friends with the Yeti population here." His eyes narrowed as he glanced at the cages with flies. Giroro stood in front of them so the local couldn't try to wrestle them out of his hands.

"No worries, I'm not going to take them." He explained. "Those resemble the parasites that have been killing off the Yeti population." He explained. "If you're eradicating them, you have my thanks." He helped Natsumi up. "Let me help your friend."

"Thank you...Please help her." Giroro begged.

The man smiled. "I will. And although I don't know if my theory is correct about the parasites, still..Thank you for getting rid of those."

Giroro smiled feeling he could trust this man. And he too collapsed from how cold he was.

The man caught him, and took Giroro to heal in his house along with Natsumi.

He would help both these people as thanks for helping his own friends.

* * *

 **I guess I couldn't keep this story from actually being M. I'm going to try not to explain subtle stuff too much like what Giroro misinterpreted Natsumi's exercises as. You can probably guess. Unless you would like me to be more clear, then tell me if you need me to explain subtle sexual stuff.**

 **This chapter was surprisingly sexual. I guess my hands just happen to bleed out Gironatsu smutty stuff, even though they didn't bang in this chapter and I won't write any smut scenes in this story. I'll explain my reasons for that in the chapters that get closer to anything smutty.**

 **It was hard to keep Giroro and Natsumi from making out with each other a lot though.**

 **I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope I made Natsumi do enough and cool enough.**

 **The next chapter- spoilers, is Dororo's.**

 **Please review**


	7. Blame Game

**I actually managed to finish this chapter before my surgery. I had like two goals for this story before surgery. Finish chapter 7 and chapter 8. As more and more preparations started piling up and stress I realized that was very unlikely but I'm so surprised that I managed to finish chapter 7. (I won't be able to finish chapter 8 yet.)**

 **Also I apologize for disorientedness, I took many breaks in between scenes due to preparations. I didn't edit this chapter as much because I simply did not have the time. I apologize to Dororo.**

 **I hope you enjoy Dororo chapter's. Because Dororo and Koyuki are the main's in this chapter.**

* * *

They had all agreed to go their separate ways. Some of them hated the thought of being separate, some couldn't have it any sooner.

Dororo was one such person who wanted to be the hell away from the platoon, or specifically Keroro.

He didn't say any good-byes to anyone in his platoon. Giroro, Tamama, Kululu, they were all a painful reminder that he had been assigned to this platoon.

He knew Giroro had nothing to do with Keron's mistakes, but he saw no reason to say good-bye to his friend. Giroro might just forget he was even trying to say good-bye after all.

Keroro however, Keroro was different than the rest of the platoon. Although he hadn't known Keron had set them all up on a fake invasion and had wanted rid of them, Dororo blamed Keroro fully for his own placement in this platoon.

 _It's always Keroro's fault. Keroro has destroyed every little piece of my life. Made me into a scapegoat, forgotten about me, injured me, scared me...He's done things time and time again to hurt me._

It had to be Keroro's fault that Keron disliked him. In all likeliness Keroro had failed at some sort of mission like always and when asked and interrogated about it he had somehow shifted the blame to Dororo, despite Dororo not even being there.

It was so like Keroro. And now finally Dororo was seeing the consequences of so many of Keroro's actions.

So no, he wasn't unhappy being away from Keroro for a huge period of time. In fact, he didn't know if he wanted to ever see him again at all.

Keroro had made him into a failure. He wasn't born a failure. It was all just getting thrown in with a bad crowd.

There was no heart-wrenching good-byes. He didn't even answer Keroro's calls. He just silently left.

 _Convenient time to try to remember me now, huh, Keroro?_ Dororo thought to himself, throwing his phone down to the ground and seeing Keroro's number try to get through again.

Keroro was probably afraid of splitting up and wanted to have advice on the decision. But since he usually ignored Dororo, Dororo was going to give him exactly what he wanted- silence.

He never wanted Keroro to speak to him again.

* * *

It took a few days for Dororo to work up the courage or figure out what he wanted to do to find the flyians. He was very distracted.

It wasn't that he was lying around depressed like Giroro, it was that he was filled with complaints.

Dororo was a keronian who when he was pushed to the edge was always filled with a salty attitude. And that salty attitude was fully directed at Keroro at this moment.

"I just can't believe it! The nerve! That he would be at fault for all of this—It's our childhood all over again! Ugh I hate Keroro!" Dororo paced around his little ninja hut in the woods.

He had been avoiding his home for a while, due to the belief that Koyuki was still mad at him, but he needed someone to complain to and someone who would listen to him when he talked for hours about Keroro. He knew Koyuki might still be mad at him, but at least she listened.

He wanted to be by her side even if she might be resenting him too. He knew she knew how to deal with an injury, but he had to make sure that the wound she had gotten didn't get infected or the colonel didn't come to finish her off.

 _Lady Koyuki might have nerves of steel due to her ninja training, but I don't think the ninja clan ever trained her for the threat of mental probing._ Hypnosis? Yes. That was in their ninja arts. But actual alien technology ripping into their skulls?

That would be frightening to anyone. And if you hadn't mentally prepared yourself for a certain sort of threat even the strongest could be unnerved about it.

Dororo wanted to be there if she needed him, be it to help with nightmares or just to feel safer. Even if she was still mad at him.

She didn't look mad, and had happily let him back in the house. She must have realized there were more important things than being bitter, like the planet's safety. Dororo, a few days after the fact, hadn't learned that lesson yet.

Koyuki watched Dororo just pace and fume, complaining about Keroro instead of trying to figure out a route to take to capture the flyians to save Pekopon.

She didn't make any visible movements to glance at the table with the folder and file labeled ' _LANCE CORPORAL ZERORO.' _ Koyuki didn't need to move, her head was as agile as an owl's.

The folder, she observed, was untouched, with her ninja like eyes she could see no fingerprints, and the smallest specks of dust laying on it. Dororo must not have read it yet, but the title itself filled him with a bitter rage at Keroro.

"Did...Did you want to look at the file?" Koyuki asked, standing up. She wasn't going to push Dororo to read it if he didn't want to, but she was curious as to why his curiosity hadn't gotten the better of him.

 _He always was the more tranquil of the two of us. Wise. Sometimes upsetting information is better left untouched._ There was that saying that Angol Mois was always talking about 'ignorance was a bliss'. Koyuki never really liked agreeing with it, she preferred to curiously poke herself into things.

Dororo shook his head, realizing that Koyuki was talking to him. "Reading the file. Looking at it. Crying over it. Those things don't matter. It doesn't change anything. It won't change the past. I'm here now." Dororo pointed out.

His words were reasonable. Wise and smart like always, they minimized mental damage, but the way he said it, his tone of voice sounded bitter.

 _He's angry._ Koyuki observed. Dororo's anger never exhibited itself as explosive violence. It only came out in trickles of salty, bitter complaints.

He must have been angry at Keron for choosing him out of thousands of Keronians as 'expandable' and a failure. "Dororo, they might have chosen you, but you like being here. This planet is good for you. And I like having you here. If they hadn't chosen you we never would have met." Koyuki pointed out and sat next to him.

She wanted him to calm down, to look at the beautiful forest that the two of them had to enjoy. She let a quiet hum escape her lips, smiling as she pointed to the forest, hoping he'd be reminded of how much he truly loved the planet too.

"I know, but...I can't help but be mad at Keron for de-valuing me. Casting me aside. It doesn't feel good. It hurts." Dororo admitted. "But to a bigger extent I'm mad at Keroro. It's his fault. All his fault." He cursed some more.

Koyuki twirled a knife in her hands, trying to figure out what to do. Did hugging someone out of anger help? Nah, that didn't sound like it would solve Dororo's Keroro issues.

She liked listening to Dororo and helping him, but three whole days of complaints about Keroro wasn't something she particularly liked the idea of doing. She had the patience for it, it was just...They needed to find the flyians.

"I just...I valued my assassin abilities so much, Lady Koyuki." Dororo confessed. "I was proud of them. After all it was the one thing Keroro gave to me besides crippling trauma. It was something that only I could do. I didn't have to fight. I just had to win the battle in one blow."

"And you learned that those assassin abilities weren't nearly as valued by Keron?" Koyuki asked. Dororo's reason for being bitter sounded appropriate.

Dororo nodded. "Still somehow, even that, Keroro managed to mess up. He got my assassin abilities somehow called into question and I was put into this platoon. I mean, I'd be foolish to think that this had nothing to do with Keroro. That this platoon of bait mostly has childhood friends of Keroro's just seems too coincidental. The only one of us that he was nice to didn't end up in this platoon, so it must have been Keroro saying terrible things that made Giroro and I end up here." Dororo pointed out.

"Dororo, do you feel in your heart that it's productive to blame Keroro?" Koyuki reminded trying to get Dororo to focus on more important things.

Dororo sighed, not getting mad. "You're right, Lady Koyuki." She was always right. "Still...It just hurts that he even managed to ruin my standings as an assassin."

"Do you really know it was his fault though? Maybe Keron chose you for completely different reasons?" Koyuki tried to suggest, "Maybe reading the file would make you feel better because you'd have closure on it."

Dororo shook his head. "I think...Reading those files would just make me mope over nothing I could control." Dororo glanced over to the files.

He took Koyuki's hand to help her up on her feet.

"But I understand what you're saying, and I agree. I've focused too long on the anger in my heart. I need to focus on my mission." Dororo put his hand over his heart. "Which is to save Pekopon. I will save this planet that I have become dedicated to."

Koyuki nodded. _But when will you act?_ She wondered to herself. Dororo wanted to be determined to save the planet but he wasn't very focused at the moment. He was just filled with petty feelings.

She mixed him up a calming herbal tea. "Here. It helps your mind concentrate." She handed him a small cup of tea, the pottery of the cup had grooves in it to help you grip it.

Dororo looked a little startled that she was offering him the tea, but did not refuse the gift. He took the cup, blew on it and drank it in his mysterious way while wearing a mask.

"Is this-?"

"To help calm you down." Koyuki replied. "You're upset."

That reminder didn't placate Dororo. Instead he had a new look of fury for once as he remembered something else that Keroro had no doubt done to him. "That's right! I didn't even get to him dragging me into his kidnap Haru scheme." Dororo grumbled. "He did the unforgivable, making Lady Koyuki angry with me-"

Koyuki shoved the tea into his face so that Dororo could drink. "We're friends, Dororo." She reminded him. "And friends forgive each other. Although I was disappointed in you then because I was trying to protect Natsumi, I understand why you did it now. You wanted to be there to try to keep the situation under control. I'm sorry. I should have listened to you, but I was too busy having no suspicions at all about Haru being wrapped up in any cover ups."

Dororo looked sad that she had been disappointed in him. "I...I never want Lady Koyuki to be disappointed in me. Even for a moment."

Koyuki let him set his tea down to hug him. "Making mistakes is just human nature, Dororo. I made a mistake too by drawing my blade and being quick to blame. We're supposed to always be on the same side. We're partners."

Dororo nodded. "...Do you think it was Keroro who was at fault for dragging me into the kidnapping Haru plan? Or did I go about it the wrong way and should have refused from the very beginning?"

Koyuki thought for a moment. "No...Thinking more deeply you probably did the right thing trying to go with them to keep the situation non-violent. I think what really hurt me was that you didn't tell me before you went though. I wasn't in the loop. We were supposed to be on the same wavelength and same page."  
Dororo nodded. "Lady Koyuki, I will tell you nothing but the truth from here on out. You will always be on the same page as me. I trust you with everything."

Koyuki smiled. That was all she wanted.

She gave him a tight squeeze of a hug again- the sort of hug that exhibited trust between two people, but she could still feel Dororo writhing, like he didn't exactly believe her.

He still thought she hadn't forgiven him.

* * *

Koyuki sat at her table, sipping tea. She finally worked up the courage to ask Dororo and try to gain his attention to the issue at hand instead of his regret, guilt and also anger at Keroro.

"So...What do you plan on doing about those flies?" Koyuki asked. They needed a plan of action before they could swiftly move. But at the present moment Dororo didn't seem to have any of that.

"P-plan?" Dororo realized Koyuki was talking to him. And asking his opinion about what he wanted to do. Nobody usually asked what he wanted to do, they just assigned him to work. "I...I honestly do not want to do Keroro's dirty work any longer."

"So...We're not going after the flies?" Koyuki asked.

Dororo shook his head. "I never said that. I would like answers about them, same as everyone else. But unlike the rest of them, I'll give them a voice to talk. After all the answers are in front of me I'll decide what's morally right based on my own heart. Not Keroro's orders."

Koyuki nodded. "What about Earth?" Keron was going to rip it to pieces for those flies.

"I will protect it too. But it's not right to give away innocent lives to protect another. I need to establish if the flies are innocent beings who are just trying to run away from a predatory species who want to eat it, or if this is an issue Keron and the flies can sort out." Dororo put a philosophical spin on things. "If a train was coming to destroy five people and the only way to get it to stop was to switch the track to kill one more I would try to find another path. I would never put the lives of many over the good of one. That's still murder."

Koyuki tilted her head. "So you wish to find answers about them to establish what their goal is, motives, if they're sentient and innocent or not."

Dororo nodded. "I also plan on finding them before the rest of my morally wrong platoon can. From the information presented before me so far it looks like Keron is much more in the wrong than the flies. I mean, they were eating them!" Dororo pointed out. "I have no desire to eat the flyians. I can control my primal desires and unnecessary emotions." He thought for a moment, trying to suppress still a bit of petty anger at Keron for discarding him. "Perhaps the flyians have just been on the run for so long that they are frightened. That's why Haru was protecting them. Maybe all they need is a friend."

He could be that friend. After all he was always willing to have more friends. And the flyians seemed willing to have friends if they helped protect them. They were just frightened creatures.

"What about Earth though?" Koyuki echoed her previous statement.

Dororo's gaze softened as he looked at Koyuki. Earth was extremely important to both of them, and it was the only home Koyuki had ever known. Of course her priorities would lie with protecting it first.

"After I have their friendship I will try to convince them to leave this planet." Dororo managed to decide. "That way Keron has no need to tear it to pieces looking for them. It shouldn't be too hard. They know it's the best option in the long run."

Koyuki picked up a pack that she had organized for her and Dororo. Dororo seemed to be focusing on the right thing now- he had a plan for what he was going to do, and she couldn't ask for anything more. She handed him his pack. "Good. Keep your plans and what you want to do close to your heart. We should get going to wherever you think the flies will be."

Dororo nodded. "We need to find them before the Keroro platoon does." He agreed. "But instead of finding all the flyians we only need to find one. Whichever one's the leader flyian or the one that was democratically elected." he preferred imagining they had a democratic system.

"Let me help you find them. Let me come with you." Koyuki offered.

Dororo smiled. "I wouldn't want anything less, Lady Koyuki. You're the only one who will never exploit me. You're my partner, why wouldn't I take you? My life partner who I trust to help me." Dororo agreed.

Koyuki jumped up and down giddily. "I knew you'd say yes! I was a little worried because Natsumi said she was worried that Giroro wouldn't agree to taking her along, but I knew you're nothing like Giroro. And we're nothing like Giroro and Natsumi. Our relationship is built on a lot more trust."

Dororo pulled his mask up a little higher. Did Koyuki realize what kind of relationship Giroro and Natsumi had? Saying they had something stronger than Giroro's intense lovesickness sure was something. He kinda hid under his mask.

"I have no idea where the flies could be." Dororo finally admitted, trying to change the subject.

Koyuki looked at Dororo for a moment. She seemed reluctant to give her input. "My...My forest probably has some connection with them. Where the ninja clan was."

Dororo looked up at her. "...But the colonel said you were the one person who had no sort of residual air around you as being near the flyians. Which was unusual for this entire planet."

Koyuki nodded. "You were dropped off in the forest for that reason when you came to Pekopon. And if it's answers and something of importance that you seek...That's the best bet of where it could be." Koyuki decided. "There has to be some reason my forest was special and me. Perhaps this leader fly agreed not to set foot in it or something."

Dororo nodded. "Great idea, Lady Koyuki! We want to know truthfully more about these creatures. And your old abandoned ninja village might provide us with clues."

Dororo was so glad he had someone as smart as Koyuki on his side.

* * *

The strong smell of pine needles, and the hint of leaves and dirt filled both Koyuki and Dororo with a sense of nostalgia.

The forest was their home, and although it was a fair bit away from their new ninja hut it still felt like it's own place, halted by the development of the times.

Dororo liked the place of nostalgia. The sunshine streaming through the trees, the chilly air, it all relaxed him.

"Careful, Dororo." Koyuki warned her blade out. "I don't think all the traps my people put up were taken down when we disappeared. There were a few I'm sure we forgot about."

Dororo jumped back as a bear claw tried to yet again take his foot. "Bear claw once, life changing, bear claw twice...Might just hurt." He decided.

This forest had trapped him once, and although he was very thankful of that he didn't really feel like stepping into another trap.

"Things could be very hidden in the under brush." Koyuki peered over Dororo's shoulder worriedly. "I remember setting up quite a few poison darts that are supposed to go off when intruders enter...And I kinda forgot to get rid of them." Koyuki giggled awkwardly.

"I'll be fine. I'm a trained assassin." Dororo tried to look brave. "What about you, Lady Koyuki? Are you going to be okay fighting your way through these traps? This sounds like it's more dangerous than either of us thought it would be."

It was no longer a nostalgic trip.

Koyuki looked awkward and rubbed the back of her head. "Well...This is where I grew up. I know the forest better than you do, Dororo. I don't think I'm at any risk of being hit by any of these traps and well..." She didn't want to say it.

"I understand. I'm less experienced with this forest, correct? I have a track record so you should go to the front and lead." Dororo did not feel offended when Koyuki said it.

Koyuki looked at her feet. "Actually I was going to say you're more unlucky than me. Oddly enough danger seems to sort of generate around you frogs. Oohh Natsumi said what it was. You're comedy characters! That's the normal term for it, right?"

Dororo frowned. "I don't think anyone can be a 'comedy character'." It was true that he had his share of bad luck. It kinda felt like whenever someone was around Keroro they would get bad luck. He'd suck all the good luck out of them.

He understood what she was saying, and far from being offended he followed her lead.

He wouldn't get hurt by such little things after all.

As Dororo and Koyuki traveled through the underbrush, with Koyuki trying to remember where any traps were so she could disengage them before Dororo got stuck in them, Dororo noticed just how skilled Koyuki was.

She was fast, she had her fair share of herbal and trap knowledge, and an eye for detail. Her senses were keen and good and she always acted on her gut instinct. It always filled Dororo with a nice feeling to watch her work. Pride and admiration.

"You know, Lady Koyuki. You really are remarkable." Dororo complimented her.

Koyuki swung down from a tree branch swinging around a wire with another death trap. "Oh Dororo! You're too kind. You say that all the time." She smiled.

"No, but I mean it in a different way! You're probably the most amazing creature I've ever met." Dororo wondered why he couldn't get his compliments into words. _Why can't I just explain what I'm feeling? How I'm so proud of her and how every time I watch her I admire her so much? She's given me so much courage to change and just watching her power fills me with a sense of niceness._ He wasn't sure why he couldn't put it into words.

Maybe he could explain it. Why she was remarkable to him. "Keronians have always stolen things. We've never relied on our own abilities." Dororo finally said, "We're an invading species. Cruel and controlling. We've even controlled the weather and our environment to be predictable."

"Ah! So I'm remarkable because of my unpredictability." Koyuki said, upside down in a tree branch, smiling and making a flower crown for Dororo.

Sure they were on a mission but she could still have fun.

Dororo shook his head. He didn't know why saying Koyuki was remarkable made his heart beat so fast but he knew this way he said 'remarkable' was a different tone of voice. "Pekoponians like you though hone their skills. They practice and create their own skills instead of stealing them. It's really impressive and beautiful. It's remarkable to work so hard at a craft that's all their own." Dororo complimented. "Pekoponian ninjas are probably stronger than Keronian assassins like me for that reason. You're not just a bunch of cheap gadgets and tricks."

"Oh Dororo..." Koyuki leaped down from her branch landing on the ground. "Is this about that file? Are you trying to compare us?" Was he sad about not being a good assassin according to Keron?

"No. I'm just saying you're probably stronger than me. You've beaten me on several occasions." Dororo frowned. He really wasn't being mopey. "I was trying to compliment you! I was telling you what I l-love about pekoponians. How hard they work and how remarkable they are." Dororo couldn't muster up the words to say anything more. He was starting to stutter a little.

What was he trying to get across? A compliment? Then why had he started to stutter? He loved complimenting Koyuki?

But this 'remarkable' wasn't like any ordinary compliment.

"Thanks!" Koyuki finally said, not really seeing anything more to it. She just kind of brushed it off and continued with the mission.

Dororo followed after her like a puppy.

* * *

They were much deeper into the forest by now. About halfway to the old village. A normal person it would have taken several days of travel to get that far, but Koyuki and Dororo were not normal.

They elected to stop by a waterfall for lunch. Koyuki said it had been one of her favorite places to reflect and think in her childhood.

With the way the water splashed, Dororo couldn't blame her. It certainly was beautiful, but he decided that sitting by Koyuki and eating lunch, even if the rice balls were as heavy as bowling balls, made it all the more beautiful.

Koyuki took a bite of her deadly rice ball, but as Dororo looked at her he noticed that she looked like she was thinking deeply about something. That she seemed worried.

 _I've been thinking about my own bitter anger at Keroro this entire time._ Dororo realized. But now that he focused more on Koyuki he noticed that she clearly had something on her mind. _I should have been focusing on Lady Koyuki. She's clearly worried about something too._

He hadn't been being a good friend.

He scooted closer. "L-lady Koyuki?" He asked in a quiet voice. "Is there something on your mind? You can confide in me if you want." How long had she had that quiet, sort of unsure look on her face? How long had he not noticed?

Was it sadness over being away from her ninja clan? A sense that she'd never have that family and community again?

"What...What do you think my connection is to those flies?" Koyuki asked referencing what the keronians had said about her. That she was the only one special and untouched. She was different than other pekoponians. "I mean I'm sure they meant I was special because I didn't have the smell of them or something, the residual air that they were around me when I grew up like other humans have. They don't have that in this forest. But why?"

Dororo didn't know. Koyuki's answers that she reached seemed to make the most sense to him, but obviously that wasn't enough for Koyuki.

"Why was I the only one not around them? I've never heard of them before...If I'm so special I should have heard of them, right?" Koyuki asked.

"Lady Koyuki, it's okay to be confused." Dororo took her hand.

"There's honestly a lot of mysteries that surround me that I don't have the answers to. A lot of mysteries I don't like talking about. Like where are my parents? Do they have something to do with this? Why did they abandon me in the forest? Was I unwanted?" Koyuki's worries were all coming out, the biggest mystery that she had held onto.

"Nobody could not want you." Dororo reassured.

"But then..." Koyuki gasped. "I got it! Maybe I'm part fly. Maybe I had one fly parent and one human one. But they had to give me to the ninja clan to keep their secret safe, and so they decided to get as far away from me as possible to keep things a secret. That's why there's no flies around and I'm special."

"I..." Dororo didn't really want to shoot down her theory but it didn't seem practical. "I don't think that's possible..."

"Why not?" Koyuki asked.

"I...I um..." Dororo coughed. "I don't think reproduction is possible with something that small..." He tried to avoid eye contact as the conversation got awkward.

"Out-of-species can happen though!" Koyuki insisted bringing her face closer as if to show Dororo how determined her eyes were about this theory. "People just fall in love with who they love." She pointed out.

Dororo nodded. Koyuki always had been a firm believer in love is love, not carrying about things like gender or if things were an alien or not. She didn't judge.

"Why, just look at Mois and Keroro! And Giroro and Natsumi!" Koyuki pointed out.

Dororo was a little surprised that Koyuki even knew about Giroro and Natsumi. _I guess Giroro's crush is that obvious._

Dororo blushed a little at her surprising amount of support for pekoponian like couples with keronians. But he laughed and smiled nonetheless. "Well, yes, sure, those could work out, but I don't think your parent could be a flyian, Lady Koyuki." He sighed trying to figure out a way to explain it. "You see flyians have a different reproduction system than pekoponians, I assume. I'm sure it involves more eggs and doesn't have as many overlapping similarities." Dororo decided. He didn't actually know about their reproduction and he didn't want to know.

"And we have similarities?" Koyuki asked.

"Yes. Hypothetically speaking a pekoponian and keronian could have a million babies." Dororo was over-exaggerating. A million babies wasn't possible for anyone.

Koyuki frowned. He sounded a little too happy.

"Hmmm...What other ways can I explain how a flyian can't be your parent..." Dororo tried to describe it. "I think they're too small to reproduce with a pekoponian." They were beyond small. Normal fly size.

"Keronians are small and they can get those parts into a human, Dororo." Koyuki pointed out as she stood up and put her hands on her side. She was sure she was part fly now.

Dororo lit up in blush. He didn't particularly want to hear that, and this was becoming one of those incredibly awkward conversations that he didn't even really want to have with even his best friend- no especially his best friend, Koyuki, considering she was not a keronian. "Um...Uh—Uh well, I mean, we aren't that s-small. You don't think we're like...Fly sized, right, Lady Koyuki?" Dororo had to ask.

Koyuki shook her head after thinking about it for a moment.

Dororo was still blushing. "I just..I highly doubt that a fly alien and a pekoponian could breed. I don't even think a keronian and an insectoid alien could breed."

"Well, keronians aren't mammals." Koyuki pointed out. "Maybe we shouldn't judge reproduction for aliens based on labels of class based on this planet's system."

"I don't think a pekoponian could want to have sex with a fly." Dororo said crudely. Maybe he just had to be honest.

"Well I wouldn't have a problem having sex with a keronian. It's basically the same thing, right? Except my mother would hypothetically be dating a fly." Koyuki pointed out.

Dororo didn't hear the second half of the sentence. He was dead. His body must have decided he was done with this conversation by shutting down and collapsing on the ground, blushing.

"D-dororo? You okay?" Koyuki asked.

Dororo carefully tried to get up. "I...I'm honestly not sure. I think I just almost reached the after life." _This is the most embarrassing conversation I've ever had._ And Keroro had made him have a variety of embarrassing conversations with people to distract them so Keroro and Giroro could sneak past them. Although to be fair they had all forgotten about him in the middle of the conversation.

"Dororo..." Koyuki rubbed her arm and looked shy for a moment. "I'm sorry if I made you feel awkward by saying anything weird. I know I can be weird a lot of the time."

"I like how you act. I don't think you have to push yourself for an odd definition of 'normalcy'. You can be weird." Dororo reassured.

"It's just I was worried. And now I'm even more worried. Are you acting odd and hurt because if I was part fly you wouldn't be my friend anymore?" Koyuki asked. "...If I had those fly things in my body like Haru did would you still care about me? Would you still sleep by my side like we do every night? Or would it gross you out?" She looked really worried.

Dororo took her hand, seeing that she honestly did believe that somehow she was part fly. "I'd care for you and love you no matter what you were or whatever body parts you were or whatever creatures were inhabiting your body. You're still the Lady Koyuki who found me here." Dororo said his voice filled with pure devotion.

Koyuki tilted her head. "Love?" _Must mean like the soul mate sort of stuff he usually talks about._ Still it struck her this time. She noticed it. Dororo used that word a lot, but it finally reached her that time.

"U-uhhh.. W-we should continue our trek through the forest." Dororo decided changing the subject. He turned away trying to hide behind his mask how clearly embarrassed he was.

Koyuki stopped noticing it and followed him as they packed and went to look for the old abandoned village.

* * *

They were close. Dororo knew it. He could tell by the sky and the way the stars shined. He knew the exact location of the stars and constellations anywhere.

"There." Dororo pointed.

"This isn't the old village, Dororo." Koyuki teased.

Dororo shook his head and walked over. "I know it isn't. It's something far more important to me." He brushed off some leaves to see a bear trap. "This is where I was caught for days when I was separated from my platoon."

Koyuki frowned. She knew it had been a long time. _I wonder if Dororo is remembering the pain of being trapped in a bear trap for so long...Or if he's thinking about how sad he is that his platoon didn't come for him._ She didn't want him to be scared.

Koyuki picked him up and hugged him, nuzzling Dororo's back.

Dororo smiled softly as he looked down at the bear trap with a sense of nostalgia. "It's all right, Lady Koyuki. It doesn't give me any sense of sadness. Actually I have a sense of nostalgia for it."

"You had no food or water for days, Dororo. You almost lost your life. You were dying when I found you." Koyuki reminded. "Anyone would be scared."

"It's true the first day I was scared. The second day I was angry cursing my platoon for not finding me, not sure why nobody was helping and knowing I had put my faith in Keroro again and been punished for it, but..." Dororo tenderly stroked the claw without letting himself be grabbed. "I met you because of this. You saved me when nobody else would."

"But it still hurt you in the beginning!" Koyuki reminded.

"But I reminisce on it now. It made me Dororo. It made me a better person. So this bear trap is very important to me. After all I care so much about this forest and you." Dororo pointed out.

Yes, Keroro had betrayed him by not finding him. Keron had betrayed him by casting him aside, but Koyuki had come to him in his moment of betrayal and had always been there for him. She would always be by his side.

Koyuki was more important than anything.

Koyuki picked up the bear trap. She had a look of confusion plastered to her face, still not sure how anybody could really be attached to something that had hurt them so much. "Well then, umm...Would you like it as a gift? Then you can bring it home with you."

Dororo smiled and laughed, "No thank you. I love it, but I don't think I want to be around something I could trip in."

Koyuki smiled and laughed with him. She set the bear trap down and the two of them just laughed and smiled, looking at each other, reminiscing on their first meeting.

They cared for one another, their bond was strong. And nothing could change that.

Dororo giggled and looked at Koyuki. He began to feel dizzy. _W-what is this feeling?_ It was like a lack of oxygen or something.

"Dororo?" Koyuki looked worried at him.

 _Is this l-love?_ He didn't remember love feeling so dizzing. Love always felt nice to him.

He collapsed, asleep. Nope. Not love. Just sleeping gas.

Koyuki quickly got out her knife and covered her face. Dororo might have been wearing a mask but he wasn't as used to this particular laughing gas/sleep technique. Koyuki was however familiar with this tool.

She didn't ask who was there. She just threw some knives at where she sensed the presence, and tried to jump into the branches. She knew as soon as she took a breath she would fall asleep.

Someone was trying to knock her and Dororo out. She was not going down without a fight.

 _I'm a ninja. And nobody takes out Koyuki Azumaya of the ninja clan._ She couldn't see her attacker yet, they must have been hidden in the forest but she knew they or several of them were coming for her.

As she twirled around, trying to battle an unseen foe, a dart shot forward. She did a back flip in the air, trying to avoid it.

She then saw that the dart was heading to Dororo, on the ground. Since she didn't know if it was a deadly poison or not she rushed forward.

The attacker must have been relying on that because a new dart shot forward hitting her in the thigh. Koyuki didn't let out a scream, she just fell to the ground before she could reach Dororo.

 _Dirty trick, using my feelings for someone else to get me out in the open._ She felt like a failure for not being able to beat the attacker and for being beaten in one hit.

But that was the ninja way. Whoever landed the first blow won. She threw one last knife weakly before her eyes closed.

* * *

He was asleep. Dreaming. He had no idea what was happening or the fight Koyuki was currently having.

Dororo was just on a cloud. A cloud that looked very much like a classroom. Blank faced keronians were all around him. There was only one keronian besides him who had any color.

 _Keroro..._ Dororo realized. He was dreaming about Keroro.

Keroro wasn't sitting at his desk as Dororo walked through the aisles of desks in the classroom. He was sitting on the teacher's desk, eating an apple like a jerk.

"What do you want, Keroro?" Dororo asked. He was surprised by how high and squeaky his voice sounded. Like it was on the cusp of puberty. He felt his face and realized he couldn't feel his smooth mask, only his medical one.

He looked behind him. He was a tadpole again. This was a dream about his past.

All of his nightmares usually involved Keroro in some way or another. Keroro messing something up for him or something like that. He just had hoped that Keroro wouldn't ever wreck his life again. Apparently that wasn't something that was possible though. Keroro had made sure that Dororo was chosen for this fake Pekopon invasion.

"I'm here to educate you about trust." Keroro said. Despite the fact that Dororo was a tadpole, Keroro was not. He suspected Keroro just took on the form he had seen the most recently in his dreams.

Keroro jumped off the table and pushed past the keronian teacher, pushing her onto the ground. She dispersed into clouds as if Keroro had murdered her.

Keroro grabbed a piece of chalk so he could start writing on the chalkboard.

"Trust as in, not to trust you?" Dororo asked. "Or are you talking about Keron? I don't care about Keron. I was a traitor to them anyway. I care that you ruined things for me even before I was a traitor. I want my successes, my failures, to be my own, Keroro!" Dororo proclaimed.

Keroro ignored him writing the word 'Trust' in big letters on the chalkboard. "I'm here to help you. To warn you."  
"Every time you convince me that you're helping my life gets worse." Dororo narrowed his eyes at Keroro. He felt himself sitting down at a desk though. Chains extended from the table to latch into his arms.

He wasn't allowed to move. He had to listen to Keroro's lectures. Was his psyche this easy to con? Even an imaginary Keroro had his attention?

Keroro continued writing the word trust over and over again.

"What are you trying to warn me about? Not to trust you? Keron? I've learned that lesson!" Dororo yelled.

"You still trust though. You've never learned your lesson." Keroro turned to him. "You still trust." Keroro turned his back to Dororo and drew a picture for him. When he turned away from the chalkboard Dororo could see a perfect picture of Koyuki. "You trust the pekoponian girl, Koyuki."

"Of course I do! She's my friend. My partner. My soul mate. We live together. I trust her with all my heart!" Dororo declared, and struggled against his chair trying to free himself.

"You haven't learned your lesson, have you, Dororo?" Keroro asked. He walked over to Dororo slowly. "You've trusted, you've loved, you've had friends before. And every time it's blown up in your face. You've been used and discarded by everything you trust." Keroro appeared at Dororo's side, whispering into his ear.

Dororo broke one of the cuffs on his wrist and moved forward to punch Keroro's face. "Lady Koyuki is nothing like you!" He defended. "You're just trying to wreck another friendship and relationship I've started. No matter where I go, somehow you always find me Keroro. You worm your way into my life and then you wreck things again!" He accused.

Keroro laughed and jumped away, not getting hit by Dororo's weak punch. "Ha! Ha! Ha!" He just cackled.

Dororo glared and freed himself from the other cuff. He stood up. He wouldn't sit and listen to this slander on Koyuki. He wouldn't doubt her. He wouldn't ever not trust her. "I've made some mistakes because of your charisma before." Dororo admitted. "But I won't let you drag me down any longer."

"Oh? I'm dragging you down now?" The imaginary Keroro looked amused.

"You're a bad friend. You made choices in my life that you didn't deserve to make, like telling Keron that I was a failure and making me end up in this platoon. I won't stand for it any longer. I'm cutting you off." Dororo stood strong.

Keroro laughed. He didn't seem scared. Instead he walked over to Dororo. He reached behind his back and something appeared in his hand.

A grin spread on Keroro's face as he stood in front of Dororo. He handed him a folder.

Dororo's knuckles turned white when he realized what folder it was. " _Lance Corporal Zeroro_." It read. It was the file Keron had left for him. The reasons he was in the platoon.

"Are you so sure it's my fault?" Keroro asked. "You haven't even opened this file yet." Keroro reminded. "And being a part of your nightmares I know why. You want to blame me. You're afraid of facing the truth. That it was all in fact in your control." Keroro grinned.

"You talk big, say you want your failures to be your own, but if that's true why haven't you faced the truth yet and opened the folder?" Keroro asked. "Is it because you want me to be making your decisions for you? You say you don't trust me, but the person you really don't have the courage to trust is yourself, Dororo."

"No! That's not true." Dororo shook his head. "I want to make my own decisions! I want you to listen to my opinions!"

Keroro laughed. "The reason you like being around me, and were always so attracted to me is because you try so hard to be 'good'. Your weakness is you're too afraid to face moral consequences for your actions. You can always blame someone else for bad stuff if they forced you to, can't you?" Keroro glared at him. "You're the one using me as a scapegoat. When things don't turn out the way you want them to you can get angry at me and blame me." Keroro accused. "Your heart is black."

"No! It is not!" Dororo shook his head.

"You are an assassin." Keroro crossed his arms. "You've hurt tons of people before. Are you really worth having a friend? You're the true evil here."

Dororo frowned. "I'm different now! I'm not Zeroro. I'm Dororo." He had cast his assassin life aside. "Stop trying to blame me even in my dreams! All this...All my trauma! All of it is your fault!" Dororo accused the nightmare.

Keroro just shook his head as if he was disappointed in Dororo. "You're trying to make friends with the flyians. You're trying to convince them to leave the planet and you want to get them before our platoon can. Your plan might blow up in your face. It could cause a war. Now, tell me which of us really has noble intentions or just wants to be seen as a good person? You're bitter and petty, Dororo. Don't deny it."

Dororo didn't want to hear that sort of stuff. He just denied it over and over again. And finally he screamed.

The nightmare faded away into the distance. His screams were awakening him.

* * *

Dororo's eyes opened and he felt his back pressed up against a big tree. He could feel Koyuki's hand, her long slender fingers, but not see her. She must have been tied to the other end.

"Koyu-" He was about to speak up, in his grogginess, but then he realized that they were surrounded and that Koyuki was in the middle of something. That she had long since awoken before him.

"What's the big idea? I thought we went our separate ways on good terms!" Koyuki shouted at someone. Dororo couldn't recognize anyone who was surrounding them besides the fact that they were dressed in black and clearly ninja.

"We did. After you turned me down to join our group, I was fine with things." Shigure's voice answered, Koyuki's friend. "However I still had some small problems with your friend who attacked us."  
"Dororo never hurt your group! Nor did he attack you." Koyuki defended. "That was a different alien, Keroro and Giroro. You have no battle with either of us, so why did you knock us out and tie us up?"

"Well you're trespassing in the forest-" Shigure tried to explain.

"This was my old home too, Shigure." Koyuki frowned. "I have just as much right to be here as you."

"I know this used to be your home, Koyuki." Shigure sighed and bent down so he was more at her eye level. "But it's where my clan will reside now. See, I've started making my plans to revive our clan bigger. Greater."

 _He's still bringing about the ninja clan to the modern age?_ Dororo wondered. He had a stab at his heart wondering if Shigure, Koyuki's old friend would continue trying to ask Koyuki to join him, and would eventually steal her away. He had been all right with Koyuki making whatever decision made her happiest before but something about the idea of Koyuki leaving didn't rest well with him. That and he knew Koyuki had turned down Shigure before. She wanted to stay with Natsumi and him.

"Bigger?" Koyuki asked. She seemed to have not realized Dororo was awake yet. She was in her own conversation, having a battle of iron gazes and looks. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've come to realize that to keep ninjas alive in the modern age you need funds. High officials, politicians, businessman...They're all very willing to give those funds when they realize what kind of jobs your clan is willing to take to stay alive." Shigure smiled.

"You're...You're taking assassination jobs?" Koyuki asked. The idea wasn't out of her depth. She knew Dororo was an assassin. She just was surprised.

"And generally darker jobs than our clan took." Shigure replied. "It turns out white clouds don't get to live very long. Clouds last the longest in gray and stormy areas."

Koyuki was quiet for a long moment. As if she was just thinking about how sad this situation was. She eventually decided not to insult Shigure's lifestyle despite its sad situation. "Still...Why did you tie me up?" She finally asked.

"I really am sorry about that Koyuki. You were a dear friend of mine. And a respected ninja...But I wanted to talk to you. And I didn't want you fleeing. I wanted to talk to you alone without your other friend getting in the way so I...Um...Sleep drugged him." Shigure replied.

 _He sleep drugged me so he could talk to Lady Koyuki? Saburo is so wrong. I knew I had a bad feeling about this guy just because he was a bad person. Not because I'm jealous or anything. Nobody should sleep drug anyone else so they can talk to someone alone._ Dororo started to squirm a bit trying to untie himself. He couldn't figure out how.

Shigure hadn't noticed he was awake yet. Koyuki hadn't either, but her hand tightened on Dororo's, holding his hand as if to make sure he was still there.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Koyuki asked trying to keep her upbeat and friendly attitude while keeping herself rather guarded.

"My plans. I have bigger plans than when we met last. I no longer need to keep our ninja clan of economical worth and alive. We've achieved that. Now I want to stop hiding in the shadows." Shigure revealed.

"How? The job of a ninja is to hide in the shadows. Sure I would love it if everybody in my school embraced ninjas as something other than myth, but I don't think that's likely." Koyuki replied.

"Koyuki! We're strong! We're stronger than all these other humans in the world. If we wanted we could say...Mold the whole world into exactly what we want. We could rule this whole planet if we wanted. We have the power. Don't think how. Think when!" Shigure grinned. His grin made Koyuki shiver.

Something had changed him.

"Shigure, in feudal times ninja protected emperors….They didn't rule-"

"We don't have to protect any emperor. We could be one! We could make these humans respect nature and their planet so much more. We could turn the entire world into forest with our power. We could just take over—We could do so much good. Make so many people free." Shigure eagerly said.

"What does this have to do with me? Are you asking me if it's a good idea? Thousands of aliens have tried to take over our planet. They've all failed. Trying to dominate the planet is impossible. One group isn't meant to rule it. I think it's a bad plan-" Koyuki spoke up.

"No. I wanted to ask your help. Not your opinion." Shigure frowned. "Koyuki….You're the best ninja I've ever seen."

Dororo could hear Koyuki stumble over her words. He could feel an aura of heat through her body. She was blushing.

"O-oh. Well thank you." Koyuki replied.

"Sure you're a bit clumsy, but you're always in tune with your heart. You teach all ninja, including me about friendship and values. You're the perfect person to rule the populace who aren't ninja." Shigure told her.

"M-me? I could never be a ruler. That's not me, Shigure. I'm free spirited. I don't want to rule. I don't have ambitions like that." Koyuki replied flattered, but unsure.

Shigure cut the ropes binding Koyuki and Dororo. Dororo jumped to the ground.

"You know I was awake most of this time." Dororo spoke up.

But for once Koyuki didn't hear him. She was in much too dramatic enough of a conversation.

"Sorry for tying you two up." Shigure smiled. "Just wanted to talk." He appeared like a friend.

"It's all right. All of us ninja are a bit weird on normal boundaries and customs." Koyuki replied.

Shigure laughed, but then he took Koyuki's hand.

Dororo couldn't help but glare. He had been holding that hand until he had jumped to the ground. That was his hand.

"Koyuki. I've always liked you." Shigure confessed.

Koyuki blushed.

"Stay with me for once. Choose me instead of your other friends. Help me achieve the goals that are best for everyone." Shigure begged. "We can make the world into what we want."

"I..." Koyuki looked uncertain.

 _She always looks uncertain around Shigure. She loves being a ninja but she doesn't want to abandon her friends. I...It makes me sad that she even is uncertain. That means part of her does want to go._ Dororo frowned.

"I don't know." Koyuki replied. "I want to help. You are my friend. The ninja around you are my people. I want to help them. But I don't like this whole 'remodeling the world' mentality. It's never something I've wanted and sounds way too controlling. Humans weren't meant to remodel clouds or nature, Shigure. We're not meant to control mountains."

"But ninja can channel whole rivers. Are arts can change the tides of the wind, the sea and rivers. We were meant to control." Shigure had that sinister like grin on his face.

Dororo noticed a small shiver run up Koyuki's back. His hand moved to his sword, just in case Shigure was too pushy on a subject Koyuki had clearly already decided.

 _I vowed to not kill on this planet._ Dororo thought to himself. And as he saw Koyuki's face constantly looking at Shigure's instead of something else, he tried not to think about how he was so ready to defend Koyuki not just because he wanted to help but because he was afraid of losing her. _But if he pushes her into anything she clearly doesn't want and he becomes our enemy and attacks him again, I will…._ He tried to fight against his assassin mode. He really did. But he was so scared.

As his sword was coming out of his sheath he froze. _Wait. Am I really doing this to protect Koyuki? Or is it….petty jealousy like Saburo suggested? Am I jealous of Shigure?_ He didn't want to be that type of person or guy making Koyuki's choices for her. He respected her. Her friendship was more than enough for him.

He put his sword back.

Koyuki glanced at her partner, Dororo waiting for him to speak up about what Shigure was talking about. She knew he was listening now that he was by her side. But to her disappointment he said nothing. He just remained silent not adding to the discussion in any way.

"Shigure I...I don't like this-" Koyuki repeated, feeling as if some sort of warning was coming from his words. His ideas were dangerous and she wanted to bring her friend back into reality. But before she could finish her statement she started falling.

Shigure gladly caught her in his arms. He closed his arms over Koyuki's body in a hug, keeping her balanced and upright. "It's all right." He reassured, "I'm here. And we will achieve greatness. We can be ambitious. Koyuki...I am so glad to see you. And I want you on my side so much. You are so important to me."

 _Does he think we're hugging?_ Koyuki wondered. He was hugging her. And Dororo clearly thought they were hugging, which made sense why he wasn't doing much to stop this. But she couldn't speak. She couldn't move. She didn't normally just fall and this drug was all too familiar to her.

A paralysis drug. Shigure must have shot her with a slow acting paralysis drug. And he intended for her to be his and make sure that he had time until she was convinced of his dangerous ideas. If Shigure was anyone else she would have thought he might have intended ideas of torture to get her to be convinced to his side. He did have the tools and know how.

 _Dororo will figure out I'm paralyzed. Will he be able to defeat all the ninja?_ Koyuki wondered. He and Shigure were about evenly matched.

But Dororo just watched, not doing much. It took a few minutes of hugging for something of note to happen.

It was one of the ninja huts, a door opened, and out squirmed the village elder that both Koyuki and Dororo knew.

Dororo jumped back when he saw him. It wasn't that the village elder being there surprised him. It was the ropes on his back wrists that did. He could only use his legs. The old man was all bruised and battered clearly having been beaten up and tortured.

 _So Shigure has been...Using torture...I thought he was better than that. He's changed. In his desire to make our clan survive he's changed._ Koyuki realized. She could not talk though.

Dororo's eyes widened. "T-the elder..."

"Old man." Shigure glared. "You shouldn't have come out here."

"Koyuki! Don't agree with his plan!" The elder shouted. He seemed to have come out for one reason and one reason alone. To warn someone he cared about about danger. His eyes were frightened as he gazed at the girl in Shigure's arms. "Shigure seems to have gone mad with power! I...I made a mistake when he got in contact with me again. I wanted our ninja clan to survive and I thought perhaps the modern views were the way to go. So I trusted him with secrets that I thought he'd be mature about...But he's gone mad with the power of the secrets of our world."

"Secrets?" Dororo perked up. Did this have to do with the very reason they had come to the forest, the flyians?

"I should have always only believed in Koyuki's views. Peace and love are the way to go. Not trying to do anything to survive." The elder apologized. "Please, Shigure is dangerous-."

Shigure frowned, with his hand still around Koyuki's waist and Koyuki's expression frozen in uncertainty he threw five daggers at the wounded elder.

The elder despite being a strong ninja was too injured to move. The daggers flew at him ready to impale him.

 _No! I will not let this happen._ The elder had helped Dororo too. Dororo ran up, knowing that although Koyuki could make her own decisions, he could to. And he wouldn't ever let anyone be hurt under his watch.

He deflected the daggers with his sword. "I am sorry, Lady Koyuki. I can no longer stand silent while this conversation goes on. They tortured the elder."

Koyuki was silent. She couldn't move her mouth.

"Lady Koyuki? You can't just ignore this." Dororo frowned.

"So your friend is to be our enemy. That is all right. I always expected to have to end him. I considered that we could keep him alive to keep you happy, but he just always has to battle me, huh?" Shigure asked. "Ninja. Destroy him." He ordered.

Various ninja flew at Dororo. They must have been knew because Dororo didn't recognize all of them from the village. He realized he could probably ask Koyuki later if they were even from the village or new recruits.

"Do-Do-" Koyuki tried to speak. Tried to pull through her paralysis.

"I will fight for the innocent. I now no longer worry that my bizarre sense of danger from Shigure is petty. My fears are valid and I can act on them. I will not stand down even if you love him." Dororo fought.

"I don't love him!" Koyuki finally spoke up. She didn't even know why Dororo had latched onto that idea of many other things to focus on.

Dororo glanced at her. "Really? But you are defending him. Being silent and-"

"I'm paralyzed!" She finally got movement of her mouth and was able to shout.

"Oh." Dororo blushed. "Well that's no good." He wondered if he could rush over to Koyuki and hit various chakra points. But he was surrounded by at least 10 ninja. He couldn't go over at that moment.

Koyuki struggled and finally fell fully to the ground. Her nerves were returning to her from sheer force of will and squirming.

"Koyuki. Stop fighting." Shigure scolded.

"Never. Your ideas are dangerous." Koyuki pulled out her favorite weapon, a kunai knife. "If this is the path you choose I'll fight you forever, in the name of all I hold dear like the past and my friends. Friendships- including yours are always important to me."

Shigure frowned. "I...I really did care about you, Koyuki." He pulled out his own sword. "But the past is gone. It lasts way too long anyway...Especially for people like us. But the future is infinitely longer."

Koyuki took a step back in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Shigure didn't speak. Instead he rocketed forward like a lightning bolt, and started slashing at Koyuki, careful not to hurt her, like a training exercise. At every moment she slipped up, he tried to get past her to hit at Dororo or the elder.

"I won't let you hurt our village elder!" Koyuki shouted.

"It's time for there to be a new leader. I've killed plenty of times before and plenty more innocent than him. This guy isn't anything special." Shigure yelled.

Koyuki let out a cry when he cut at her cheek. "I thought you wanted to be a cloud. Y-you're killing?" She asked.

"We're ninja. It surprises you?" Shigure laughed.

Koyuki continued fighting, but the fight was going out of her. It was hard. Her friend was so much more different than she thought.

Dororo was still surrounded by ten ninja but he could see the position Koyuki was in. The trouble. It was time to stop playing around.

It was time to enter his assassin mode. "Assassin magic- spider's string." As if by magic armor surrounded him and his speed increased exponentially. Several strings appeared in his hands all around the ankles and wrists of his attackers. He pulled at them and they were pulled into the trees.

They weren't dead, they were just tied up. Like his puppets. As if time stood still he ran to Shigure and Koyuki who were having their own epic battle.

 _Lady Koyuki is strong, but Shigure is her friend...She doesn't have the heart to finish things._ Shigure had done evil things. And it didn't look like he could be redeemed.

Koyuki would be battling for all eternity if she couldn't free Shigure from his madness and his ambitions through death. Dororo had to be the one to do the finishing blow. Koyuki just wasn't a killer. She couldn't taint her heart like that.

 _I'm an assassin, Lady Koyuki. You aren't._ Dororo thought to himself. He would do this for Koyuki, so that her clans would remain clean, without blood on them.

Shigure spun around as Dororo came behind him. But he wasn't quick enough, the glowing sword that Dororo had just sparkling in his eyes. It was like heaven's judgment. And Shigure knew what was about to happen.

In moments, Dororo hit Shigure's leg and arms before Shigure could even blink. Shigure fell to the ground.

 _Koyuki doesn't have the heart to take her friend out. And I'd never want her to have to live with that. So I have to do the finishing blow._ This was Dororo's job.

Shigure might kill Koyuki if he didn't. Or worse, he'd imprison her in a life she didn't want. He might force her to do several things she didn't want, harm others, be with him, and control and change the world. Shigure would hurt so many innocents on this beautiful planet.

It was for the best if he was gone.

Dororo was an assassin and he held his blade over Shigure's head. Shigure was on the ground cowering. Everyone could see them now, they were at normal speed.

"I'm sorry, Lady Koyuki, but he has to die-"

"It's the only way to free him from his madness. I understand. Let him be as free as a cloud. Let him be what he used to want to be. Death frees people." Koyuki replied.

Dororo nodded and was about to bring his sword down to Shigure's neck. But he felt his arms freeze.

 _W-what?_ Dororo thought to himself. He looked at Shigure and tried to focus on everything bad Shigure wanted to do and had done. And when that didn't work he tried to focus on his jealousy towards Shigure.

But none of those things made him actually want to murder Shigure enough to go through with it. His hands shook. And he realized he was afraid.

He had killed before. He was an assassin. But every single death gave him a new helping of regret and guilt. His hands were just not meant to kill. It felt like murder.

And usually he was much too scared to do the finishing blow. In reality his death count was only around two.

Dororo hated killing anyone. He just never could do it. He froze. He was great at the battles and stealth, but not the ending of life. It felt cruel.

Shigure looked up. "Oh...I know that look..." And quickly, with no fear he slapped away Dororo's sword. "It's someone who can't kill." He grinned. "No reason to hold back against that."

"N-no..." _I failed Lady Koyuki. My...My weakness and fear...My desire to be a good person has doomed her._ Dororo tried to reach his sword, but Shigure reached him first.

Shigure's hands latched around Dororo's head ready to snap his neck. "You're weak. There's no reason to even fight someone who isn't ready to kill."

And even though Dororo tried to move, he knew he couldn't. His hands just shook.

He closed his eyes. Death was coming for him.

 _POW!_

He felt cool blood rush down his helmet. But it wasn't his. He looked ahead to see Koyuki holding her hand out as if she had thrown something.

He didn't hear a sound from Shigure. Shigure just let go and fell behind him.

"L-lady Koyuki?" Dororo asked.

"Nobody gets to hurt my friends. I know the past is important but I will put my life on the line to protect Dororo. He's had enough happen to him." Koyuki hissed. "Rest in peace, Shigure. Farewell."

Dororo looked behind him. Shigure had a kunai knife between his knives. Koyuki must have thrown it.

 _Lady...Lady Koyuki killed Shigure...Was that her first kill? She killed someone..._ Dororo was horrified that he had put Koyuki in a circumstance where she had to choose Shigure or him and that she had to have killed to protect him. "Lady Koyuki!" He ran to her. "You killed...I'm so sorry…You must be terrified. Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He looked after her worriedly, and held her hand. He just wanted to kiss the hands all over and make them better. But he didn't.

Koyuki smiled. "It's...It's all right. I'm not morally damaged or anything. I killed to protect you after all. And killing to protect someone else is something I'd do again and again."

 _You probably shouldn't say it like that._ Dororo thought to himself. His grip tightened on Koyuki's hands. "But still...Was that your first kill? Oh geez, I'm so sorry..."

"Shigure killed many others who disagreed with him and he would have killed many more. It's okay." Koyuki reassured.

Dororo just hugged her. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." He apologized. She must have realized how he froze.

"You don't need to just protect me. We help each other and protect each other, Dororo. We're equals." Koyuki reminded.

Dororo nodded, but he still felt useless. He wanted to help. He opened his mouth about to curse Keroro for making him not be able to kill, but...Keroro had nothing to do with it.

It was just him. Keroro wasn't even there.

* * *

After successfully tying up the rest of the ninja and giving them a strong sleeping medicine so they could bring them to so the elder could bring them to justice, they untied the village elder.

"I'm sorry about all that Koyuki and Dororo." The village elder apologized. "I….I wanted to bring the ninja village back and I liked Shigure's ideas. I thought Shigure could be my heir and the new chief and could. So I told him our greatest secret. Unfortunately the secret gave him delusions of grandiose and the impossible."

"Our greatest secret?" Koyuki was super curious. "Well...I want to ask what it is, but I doubt I should have that knowledge. Really I have other questions that I wanted to ask. Perhaps you have answers to them? Questions about me, and about this species of-" She glanced at Dororo. Dororo nodded. It was time to do what they came to do. "Flies."

The village elder got an odd look on his face. "Koyuki. I think...I can tell you the secret. After all, you always embraced things in a kinder way than Shigure. Your friendship with Dororo is proof of that that you'll have the maturity to take it better than Shigure did. And I don't think your first response will be- 'this means I should rule the world'."

Koyuki nodded and sat down patiently. She'd ask her questions after whatever the elder wanted to tell her.

"There are legends on this planet about a species of flies. Not just like any normal bug, but a mythological race of god like creatures. They should be worshiped as gods, or at least respected. It's said they came millions of years to rule our planet, but instead of controlling us they just hid away- They are not flies but they appear to look like such. They talk and think just like us." The elder explained.

Dororo tugged at Koyuki's hand. "Did you hear that, lady Koyuki? He's talking about the flyians! The secret of your clan has something to do with the flyians. No wonder the keronians were interested in you."

Koyuki got super excited. "I think they came here not to rule but to flee predators! But we actually came here to look for information on the flyians!"

The elder looked very interested. "It seems fate was smiling on us today. This meeting must have been meant to be." He paused. "Well I'm glad you already know a lot about them, that means I don't have to explain what they are. I'll just explain our clan's connection to them."

Koyuki nodded. "Are we related to them?" She asked excitedly

"No. That's impossible." The elder frowned.

Koyuki pouted, her excitement dwindling.

"Long ago, thousands and thousands of years ago. At least 40,000 years ago this forest was still mostly the same as it was today. The flies roamed everywhere in this world, not out in the open, but in hiding. But we happened upon them. We didn't like them and although we saw them as a powerful god we also wanted this secluded forest for ourselves. We knew...Subconsciously that the flies living here were a bad omen. So we scared them away."

"Oh? That's all?" Koyuki asked. "That we had the power to scare them away and because of that they've never set foot in this forest since?"

The elder nodded. "That isn't all. Because we were able to notice more about our environment and respect it because of our training we were able to notice them when they came back. We fought for a bit, but eventually they realized we were probably the strongest of the humans, although we could be negotiated with." The elder's eyes twinkled. "We agreed on mutual terms that the flyians would not come into our forest ever again and in return we would keep their secret and not bother them or scare them away on the rest of the world. They would not prey on any of us that we claimed as one of our own too."

"P-prey?" Koyuki stuttered out. Did that mean the flies ate dead humans? Or did they live in their skin.

"Naturally the creatures feed on all creatures on this planet- humans, insects, cats, everything. They just suck at their life energy on the ground, in the air. They don't need to perch on the skin, they just drink in the air. However our forest is untouched, and they make sure that none of us ninja are touched by them too. Our life energy is not drained so we can live to however long humans are supposed to live to." The elder explained.

"Ah...So Shigure realized this and thought he would live to 40,000 and that meant he was supposed to rule everybody." Dororo realized. What arrogance.

"How old are we supposed to live to?" Koyuki face was plastered with shock.

The elder smiled. "40,000. But I'm only 30,000. I remember it all. I'm fairly older than you, Dororo." He laughed.

Dororo looked at Koyuki. His mind was spinning in shock but things were also making a little sense. _This makes some sense._ Dororo realized. _This is why I spent a year in this forest and didn't fully realize it. Why it took so long for my friends to find me. This forest appears as if it's frozen in time._

Koyuki hadn't aged like a normal human should. She wasn't aging during that time.

Dororo felt himself feel a bit of relief that his time with Koyuki wasn't short on this planet. She'd live as long as he would.

"Time always appears as if it's stopped in this forest. For the creatures and us. After all the flies do not feast on us. Some humans get confused how old they are as they train. So the ninja was only told to the top members, the ones that went outside this forest normally." The elder explained.

Koyuki frowned. "Um...Uhh...Chief?" She raised her hand. "I didn't go outside this forest until the clan disbanded does this mean I'm one of the confused-"

The elder looked amused. It was such an innocent question. He was glad he had told Koyuki. She was reacting to the news so much differently than Shigure. "Koyuki...My child...Could you tell me how old you think you are?"

Koyuki thought for a bit. She seemed scared to answer. "16?" She replied.

The elder shook his head. "500." He replied.

Koyuki sat back in shock. She was 500 years old? Was that why she was so strong? She had trained for 100 years on ninja skills?

"Don't worry, you're still young for a normal person. And you're in your teen years for humans lifespans."

There was silence for a long while, but eventually Koyuki spoke, courage in her eyes. "I've been scared for a long time to ask this. But I just killed today for the first time, so I think I have courage. This is a mystery that's much more important to me than the flies."

"Yes?" The elder asked.

"Who are my parents?" Koyuki asked. "I know I might never see them, but I need to know about me. Was I abandoned? Stolen? I've never had the courage to face it, but I need to know where I come from." She declared.

Dororo looked at her with admiration. _She has the courage to face her worries. That's amazing._ He realized. Could he do that?

"495 years ago I found you outside of the forest when you were five." The elder confessed. "You were kidnapped by slavers from your family. Mukuro and I killed the slavers and saved you. We looked for your real parents but you had been kidnapped so long ago that they had stopped looking for you. They had given up and had another child. So...We took you in. I am sorry. They would be gone by now. I can give you a name to look up in history class. You were part of the Azumaya family after all. But that is all."

Koyuki looked saddened by the information, but she nodded. "I'm...I'm glad that they looked for me. And I'm glad they lived a happy life and recovered. I...I think it's better that I knew. I feel closure."

The elder hugged her as Koyuki smiled with small tears rolling down her cheek. She was happy but also a little sad.

Dororo watched her be hugged by her most parental figure. _I admire her for facing a truth that might be a little hard to accept._ She was amazing, that she was happy and accepted that her parents had gotten over her kidnapping and disappearance.

He looked past them towards the tree that Koyuki and him had been tied to. He saw a hazy hallucination of the nightmare version of Keroro he had dreamed about. Keroro was smiling at him.

"Open it." Keroro whispered into his ears.

Dororo walked a bit away and held his file. He was ready to face the truth even if it wasn't the truth he wanted.

He took a deep breath. He opened the file labeled, " _Zeroro._ "

"I can be as brave as Lady Koyuki, Keroro." He told himself. He closed his eyes then opened them to see the file and the real reason he was sent to Pekopon.

" **Great Assassin. Very skilled. Has the gift of stealth...However lance Corporal Zeroro has been known to cry a lot whenever the subject of killing anyone comes up. Also freezes up out of fear of killing. Can not complete an assassination successfully, volatile in battle and acts on his own moral compass instead of Keron's.**

 **Regrets successful assassinations. Tries so hard but always fails because of morals. Talks to superiors as if he's having a friendly discussion and not just being ordered.**

 **Suggested course of action: Was not built for military, too kind. Useless because of this. Talented but has too many morals. Find some sacrificial use."**

Dororo smiled as he read. These complaints were not things that he wasn't proud of. Sure he had failed and Keron wanted rid of him, but he wasn't hurt that he wasn't a killer. It made him feel like he was above murderers.

He was glad his moral choices had been his own.

And more than ever he felt a sense of relief and a weight lifting off of him that it wasn't Keroro's fault. It was all his. Things were always in his control, not Keroro's. There had been a sense of helplessness from the belief that Keroro was wrecking his life over and over again.

But really it was all on him.

"I...I can accept this answer." Dororo smiled and dismissed his hallucinatory nightmare of Keroro. "After all this file lists the sort of person I want to be. Dororo. This might have been Zeroro's failure's but it's who Dororo is." He felt strong.

He was glad he had finally opened it.

He clasped his hands together and whispered something. "I forgive you, Keroro." He finally said. The things between Keroro and him were in the past.

It was over. It was time to move on. Not to focus on the past. He was a new him and Keroro had grown into a different person to, no longer using Dororo nearly as much.

It felt nice to take responsibility and control his own life.

Koyuki crawled out of the elder's arms and looked over Dororo's shoulder to see that he was finally reading his file. She looked relieved seeing that Dororo had a look of closure on his face and happiness.

"I still want to find the flyians, lady Koyuki." Dororo said. "I don't think Keron should eat them. I want to talk to them too like your people did."  
Koyuki nodded. "We have plenty of time. We both have faced our fears. Our adventure will only continue from here."

She held his hand and Dororo and her looked up at the sky. This was their adventure, their life. And it was all in their control.

* * *

 **Anyway that's finally the Dororo chapter. Who do you think will be next? Take a guess. Also please review.**


	8. Always Bait

**All right. I really apologize for disjointed bits or the long wait. As I mentioned before I had to go in for surgery and I'm still recovering. Honestly I just felt like I needed to get out the two chapters that would be the hardest for me to write so I pushed myself. (The Dororo chapter and the Tamama chapter. I like them both as characters but I do have difficulty writing Dororo and difficulty writing Tamama when he's not around Keroro or Angol Mois. I just don't feel as motivated unfortunately.) But the chapter is done now. I hope it is okay.**

 **I apologize again for bad parts of the chapter. Especially the fight scenes. I just was very sick and couldn't put thousands of words of detail into scenes that I'm not particularly good at writing. I really got to work on my fight scenes.**

 **Anyway as promised- here's Tamama's chapter.**

* * *

Tamama groaned as he lay upside-down on a sofa. His head dangled off of it, as he sighed rather sadly.

 _Mr. Sergeant…._ Tamama thought, looking at the giant diamond covered ceiling. Even though blue diamonds didn't look anything like Keroro, at this moment the shapes were looking like Keroro.

He knew five covered more ground than four. It made perfect sense that the platoon had split up into five people, but he was still annoyed and hurt. He wanted to be with Keroro during this confusing time. He wanted Keroro to relay on him, and he wanted to be able to rest his head on Keroro's shoulder too.

He wanted them to travel together. He didn't want to cover a lot of ground.

 _I don't want to be separated from Mr. Sergeant for so long!_ Tamama groaned. He was lonely. He ached for Keroro.

He didn't want to be away from Keroro for so long. Especially when he knew others outside the platoon weren't. That woman could have been comforting Keroro as he moped! She could have been kissing up to him, they could have been making out for all he knew.

Momoka peered down at Tamama on the couch. _He looks so sad. He's definitely thinking about that file and how his entire life was a lie._ She glanced over to the file laying on the counter, a few pages messily lying outside of the folder. He had obviously read it already.

She just assumed he was thinking about that at the very moment. Not his jealousy.

Momoka set down some candy on the table. "Tamama?" She asked, "Ummm...I can help you, you know. Just tell me what you need." _I can distract him from his life being a lie. I think I'd be devastated too if I knew I was lied to. If I wasn't the Nishizawa heir. I can distract him with his mission to find the flyians._

"I don't need your help, Momocchi. I can do this on my own." Tamama pouted. "That will be the only way to prove myself. Prove that I can be of some use and help."

Momoka frowned. He must have been thinking of Keron.

"Don't be stupid!" Momoka put her hands on her side. "You'll need my supplies and equipment on your side. You have Nishizawa funds at your beck and call. You have an important advantage over every single other keronian. Use it." Momoka advised.

Tamama sunk back into the sofa, not inspired to start his search even if the Nishizawa's were his benefactor. "Ugh. I don't know where to start looking for those fly things though. I'm not hardcore like Giroro. I'm not a super genius like Kululu. I'm not even super in tune with aura's like Dororo. And I'm not super lucky like Mr. Sergeant. I have no idea where to start." Tamama sighed. "I'm just going to lie here until something comes to me. In sofa heaven."

Momoka sighed and turned around to leave the room briefly. Tamama could figure out this puzzle. She believed in him that he might have some alien idea as to where to find the flies. However he just didn't have the proper motivation at the moment. Instead he preferred to lie on the sofa in a depression.

She didn't particularly blame him. It was a shocking realization to learn that his planet had been lying to him. _Still I need him to start acting and moving. I gotta cheer him up._ Letting him mope would only make the problem worse.

So soon she returned carrying a giant marching band drum. She didn't exactly know how to deal with mental health- Momoka had never been an expert on that subject despite her own problems. But she knew how to distract.

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_ She banged loudly on her drum to get Tamama's attention and hopefully get him to fall off of the couch.

He instantly bolted up. "Momocchi! That's loud!" Tamama covered his ears with a throw pillow.

"I know." Momoka frowned. "Listen Tamama. I know about the whole file thing." She sighed, glancing over to his file that she was absolutely sure was on his mind. "I know that's probably keeping you down. But being down is no excuse to not save the world. The world needs you."

"I wanna mope though." Tamama groaned. "And I don't even know where to start looking for those flies! I don't know what to do!" Tamama complained.

Momoka smiled in a superior way, getting ready to give Tamama a pep talk. "Tamama. Being in this mansion gives you a competitive edge over others. The Nishizawa power has rubbed off on you. And Nishizawa's always keep going on with or without trouble." She smiled crossing her arms.

"But I'm not-" Tamama pointed out.

"Rivals will appear!" Momoka pumped her arm in the air. "Millions upon millions of yen will be spent pointlessly! Frogs will appear to ruin your plans! Fuyuki will be dense and never ever see that you're trying to get with him. But that doesn't mean you give up. You keep on trying. Over and over again. Until that dense, stupid boy realizes you're the one for him!" She gave another fist bump in the air.

Tamama blinked. He was suspecting that Momoka's speech had nothing to do with the tenacity of overcoming obstacles in the world. Only romantic obstacles.

"Momocchi I appreciate it, but that doesn't solve the fact that I'm dumb. I have no idea what to do or where to start. All I want to do is be with Mr. Sergeant and help him-" Tamama complained.

"I know why you're so sad!" Momoka clearly wasn't fully listening to Tamama. She snatched Tamama's file off the counter. The one labeled ' _Private Tamama'_ "You can't keep letting this dumb piece of paper be in your head! You gotta be stronger than just boring words. You can't focus on what the military wrote about you. A Nishizawa wouldn't focus on it."

Tamama very weakly reached out for the file to stop Momoka from grabbing it. He made a small pouting sound, but he didn't try very hard to stop her.

Momoka just held the file in her hand and looked down at Tamama. "You're better than whatever is in this, Tamama." She tried to keep her voice a little softer. A little sweeter. "Don't let this bum you out."

Tamama winced, "I...What's in that thing doesn't actually bother me too much." He admitted, trying to childishly reassure his friend. He knew he was moping about other issues, but he also didn't particularly want Momoka to focus too much on that file. He weakly pulled his hands away from the air and Momoka and the file.

"What?" Momoka frowned. Her face looked like the type of face that didn't believe Tamama at all.

"You heard me. That thing isn't what's bothering me." Tamama repeated.

"But...Have you not read it yet?" Momoka looked at the file in her hands confused. Some papers were out of place. Tamama had clearly already read it.

"I'm not that mad about it." Tamama repeated. "I mean, it's true I was really really proud about coming to Pekopon." Tamama recalled. "Like really proud. It was a big achievement." His voice got louder, as if he was remembering that pride. "It was my first big achievement, but the fact is...I really applied and tried to get here for one reason and one reason alone."

Momoka tilted her head, confused. One reason to come to Earth? And the file didn't dampen Tamama's one reason?

"I mean, sure...I got way more into invading and having pride as an invader after coming to Pekopon." Tamama actually laughed. "I mean Mr. Sergeant was a little less cool than I had envisioned. I soon had more than one goal and wanted to focus on my career too and not just my romance." He paused. "He was still cool though!" Tamama reassured frantically. "I just soon wanted to make something of myself too. The file of course says that I can't...But it doesn't change my one reason for coming here."

"Keroro?" Momoka asked. She smiled a little. Perhaps Tamama wasn't as sad about the file as she had thought. "I would think that just knowing Keroro throughout your adventures would have already dampened that one reason." She teased.

"Hey! I mean yeah, he's a little less impressive, but he's still my idol! He's still Mr. Sergeant. I still love him even if he's super incompetent and I'm obviously the one with the pants in our relationship!" Tamama boasted. "I'm the bread winner!"

Momoka knelt down besides him smiling, glad that Tamama was taking the right attitude. "That's right, Tamama!" She encouraged. "A file can't hold you back. Focus on reality and your friendships and relationships."

Tamama nodded in agreement.

 _Tamama's file must have not been that bad in comparison to the rest of his platoon._ Momoka decided. After all it wasn't the file that was holding him back. It was the seriousness of the situation and the fact that Keroro wasn't around.

She was glad that Tamama wasn't paying attention to the file. She believed him that he didn't care about it. Still she was a tiny bit curious of what reasons Tamama had been sent to Pekopon that he clearly had no problems with.

What had made him one of the five that Keron had decided to use as bait and just get rid of?

Her fingers opened the folder on their own, not really thinking about it. And her eyes scanned the documents in front of her.

 **Private Second Class Tamama:**

 **Known to have uncontrollable and dangerous energy blasts. These energy blasts could be useful, but they can be set off by literally anything including bugs. Also there seems to be no control and little aim to them. Friendly fire is almost definite and he has caused a large amount of property damage.**

Momoka nodded to herself. That was a pretty much given. Really she shouldn't have thought of anything less for the reason Tamama was sent to her planet. His main flaw always seemed to be his destructiveness. She could understand why that had made him be put under Keron's gaze for this mission.

Still surprisingly, after a list of various buildings or expensive bits of equipment Tamama had accidentally destroyed, there was more to the folder and documents.

 **On top of this, Private Second Class Tamama has showed positive signs of being severely mentally ill. There is simply no point in having treatment for him or trying to salvage what bits of use he has because he does not come from a large family that might be able to convince Keron to hide him away. In fact Tamama has no family whatsoever. There is no status backing him up to try to convince authorities there is any use to keeping him alive.**

Momoka's eyes widened. _They're this discriminatory towards mentally ill people? That was the true reason Tamama was sent? Because they had absolutely no use for him and were just picking at random how to dispose of him and find some meaning in his death?_

This was absolutely terrifying, and disgusting. As someone not exactly mentally stable herself Momoka had to often wonder what life would be like if she wasn't rich. Would life be easier because there would be less pressure?

No. This was irrefutable proof that without her status she'd have a much worse life. Just like Tamama.

Momoka eyed her friend suspiciously. This document was absolutely terrible! Was it really not getting him down?

 _There was nobody to ever speak up for him. Even if the families of the bait had been spoken to...Tamama had nobody to speak up for him. He was just sent off to die. Nobody was there for him._ Momoka felt so much pity.

She just looked in horror at her friend.

She turned the page, and as she swallowed she realized with horror that the documents slanders hadn't ended yet.

 **Another reason why Private Second Class Tamama would be a good subject to use as bait, is there is literally nothing redeemable about him. He can't even be of any use to Keron as a worthwhile breeder. It's common knowledge that we need more good soldiers, but Tamama will not be able to provide that. The subject is hypothesized to be homosexual and thus would refuse to pass on any genes. His genes also seem to be faulty due to the mental illness but that's just one of Tamama's many many problems.**

Momoka's hands were shaking. This entire document was worse than she could even imagine. How could anyone recover from such a thing? _How could I try to push Tamama into just ignoring this?_

They were literally saying that he had no purpose except to die. That he was worthless due to his mental illness and sexuality and destructive tendencies. This was disgusting. Yet she had tried to push Tamama into ignoring this document and having no problem with it.

It must have dealt quite a blow, the whole thing.

Momoka, shaking, dropped the file back onto the counter and carefully sat by Tamama on the couch. She tried to figure out her words for a few seconds. Finally after a minute she found her voice. "You'll prove to them all that you're better than them. You'll find those flies when they don't. I just...I can't believe the nerve of them-" Now she was angry for Tamama's sake. "Keron...Keron is such a bunch of idiots! They're so dumb."

"I already knew that." Tamama said simply. And for a second Momoka didn't know if he meant that he already knew Keron was dumb or if the file hadn't dealt quite such a strong blow on him because he had already known everything in it. That he had already suspected.

"You're so much better than them. You'll find those flies." Momoka reassured him. "I'll help you. We'll figure it out."

"I thought they were finally getting around to showing me a little respect. They even made me captain once- okay so that was a mistake, but..." Tamama was getting a little quiet, now that Momoka had read the file.

"You're okay. I'm here." Momoka hugged him, worried that Tamama was much more effected than he actually was.

Tamama pulled away giving her a bit of a tired smile. "It's all right. I already kinda knew. I knew all along I was unwanted by them, deep down." He sighed. "You kinda get that impression that you're unwanted after living in an orphanage most of your life." He looked nostalgic for a moment. "You see family and parents coming to get their young ones from training school...And you just wait. You have nobody though and you just have to wait for everybody to leave so you can curl up in the playground for shelter until you're finally discovered by social services and then locked away for a good long time."

"...Tamama…" Momoka rubbed his head again. Tamama barely ever spoke about his past. She had always thought it was because it was boring, but never had assumed there just wasn't anything to talk about.

"Being unwanted by Keron doesn't really shock me in anyway honestly." Tamama confessed. "But what is making me sad is being unwanted by _him_." Tamama whined. "Mr. Sergeant hasn't contacted me at all since the platoon split up. He hasn't wished me good luck or asked for reassurance. I bet he's doing way worse than me. I mean he came from a military family. His whole life was built up to be a sergeant. And now it's falling apart. But he doesn't need me to reassure him. He hasn't reached out and asked for any help."

"Maybe he doesn't know how to talk about it?" Momoka suggested.

"I bet he contacted Dororo and Giroro. They're his childhood friends after all. They know what he's going through. I bet he needed them. But he forgot all about me. He didn't contact me at all." Tamama sounded bitter. "Bet that woman's comforting him though."

"Tamama..." _How do I point out how this whole thing is? It's way less dramatic than being sad about his file._ Momoka decided it was probably for the best that he was sad about the wrong thing.

Finally Tamama spoke putting a little more depth to his feelings. He tucked his head up to his knees. "I just..I don't want Mr. Sergeant to believe those bad things about me that were in the file. That I'm worthless. I don't care about Keron's feelings. I just don't want Mr. Sergeant to mind it...But he's silent. He's just gone."

Momoka hugged him again. "PAUL! HOT CHOCOLATE NOW! FOR MY SAD BOY!" She bellowed.

Paul hurried into the room with expensive hot chocolate and lots of candy and whipped cream. He dropped a blanket around Momoka and Tamama so Momoka could continue hugging him.

Tamama took the hot chocolate.

"Keroro will be impressed by you. He won't believe those things. I'm sure of it. But if you need reassurance that he's paying attention to you..." Momoka thought for a moment. "We could save Pekopon. Get those flies before even Keroro could. Then he'd have to look at you and be impressed!" She knew she needed to save the planet, but she also wanted Tamama to feel better. She just needed to kill two birds with one stone.

"You're right. I mean I kinda think the same thing, but I just don't know where to start." Tamama confessed. "Where are those flies?"

Momoka thought for a moment. "Well...Each of you keronians were sent to each of us because we were suspected to have some connection to the flies, right?" She got up and reached for the file and continued to browse for the word 'Nishizawa'. Finally she found it.

 **The Nishizawa family are a rich family that owns half of the world's economy. They are suspected to gain their power from the flies.**

"Yep! Here it is! The Nishizawa's are suspected to have some connection to the flies." Momoka smiled. "How about I take you to a business meeting than? You've never been to one of those. Perhaps someone in the meeting knows more about these flies or has a deeper connection than the rest."

Tamama perked up for a minute. And then he sighed. "But I'm a frog." He pointed out the obvious.

"I can deal with everything." Momoka proclaimed. "I can make you into what you need to be for the business meeting. I'll prepare you with economical facts and teach you how to negotiate...and we'll make you human."

"Make me a pekoponian? But how?" Tamama asked.

Momoka smiled. "There's some sort of gun that can make you human. It's probably in Giroro's gun pile." She revealed.

"W-wa-wa-what?" Tamama had never heard of this.

"I'm not an idiot. My security's way better than him. I know he sneaked into one of my parties pretending to be some stranger when really he had just turned human to dance with Natsumi. I decided not to bring it up because there was no reason to embarrass him. It was no attack after all. But I was always aware that Giroro had sneaked in." Momoka nodded. "We can use his technology to make you human too."

Tamama was still in shock that Giroro had been human. "Did he have the frog head?"

"No. He was like an actual human." Momoka replied.

Tamama's jaw fell open. Giroro managed to do something right? There were surprises every day.

Momoka stared at him, waiting for Tamama to give confirmation that the plan was all right. Finally after a moment, Tamama nodded.

"Let's do it. Let's lure out the flies that are with the Nishizawa's. Let's find them." Tamama agreed.

"Even if it will require some work on your part? Studying about the Nishizawa alliances and many all nighters to learn about economics?" Momoka asked.

Tamama groaned. Everyone else was probably fighting and having a good adventure. But here he was studying. "Fine. I'll learn the stuff." He said mostly annoyed.

Momoka nodded. They had a long road ahead of them.

* * *

Tamama studied for days upon days at end. Momoka wouldn't let him sleep. He needed to know how a Nishizawa business meeting worked if he was going to be there and try to sense the presence of the flyians.

After many many study sessions, he was finally ready. Momoka was smiling at him, clapping holding some weird gun in her hand.

"What is that?" Tamama asked.

"Giroro's gun." Momoka replied.

"How the heck did you get that? I thought Giroro went off to the Himalayas or something weird like that." Tamama replied.

"Aki happily let me rummage through his stuff when I asked. She was quite kind about the whole ordeal when I explained why I needed his gun. She was like 'Giroro would do that to try to impress my daughter. That's kinda funny.' Anyway I managed to find his gun so this should make you human for the business meeting. They don't usually run as long as my parties do." Momoka tried to explain.

Tamama gulped. _So this is finally it. I'll actually start looking for the flies now. I'm ready._ Becoming human had never been one of his ambitions. It was something that he didn't think of ever. He was perfectly happy to be a keronian. And it wasn't like Keroro would like him more if he looked human- that just didn't make any sense.

Still, he'd have to use a disguise if he wanted to look normal in a world of backstabbing businessman. He was going into a world that was nothing like the battlefield. This world was much more calculated. Money was the life force, not soldier's lives.

"Are you ready?" Momoka asked, a little worried.

Tamama hesitantly nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be. I...If you could get through all these business meetings I can. I need to see your life. I need to find those flyians. For Mr. Sergeant."

Momoka nodded. "Remember, you're supposedly one of my adviser's. If asked for your opinion use what I taught you. Get behind all the businessmen and see if you can sense the same energy that was coming from the other flyians." Momoka really was born to be a leader. She had already thought of an operation.

Tamama was always just that foot soldier following orders. He saluted. "Yes, sir! I'm good at sensing energy. Especially in beetles! I'm sure I can find the flyians."

"Good." Momoka smiled. And then she shot Tamama with the gun. "Because we're about to enter a world that's nothing like the one you know."

The light surrounded Tamama and the person he knew was no more. Instead there was a human in his place, rather short for his age. His face was soft and round more baby faced than anything and he could feel weird long eyelashes on his face. The weirdest part of all was definitely the short bob of red hair though. It felt unnatural.

Momoka offered him a fancy dark blue outfit to cover his naked body. She avoided eye contact although Tamama didn't really understand the human customs of clothes. Hair, clothes it was all so weird. Everything was weird about a human body. He still wasn't exactly sure why Giroro would willingly use one, but hey he wasn't as stupid as Giroro.

He was ready.

* * *

Paul and Tamama were on either of Momoka's sides. This meeting was held in one of the Nishizawa skyscrapers.

Momoka pushed open two giant large doors.

"The adult business world..." Tamama muttered to himself. He hoped he maneuvered through it well. He saw a giant table in the room that Momoka led him into. Men of all ages were sitting around the table. They were all sizes- but by and large they were all men.

 _The businessmen of the adult world._

"Momoka Nishizawa." They greeted. "The heiress to the Nishizawa industry. You honor us by appearing at this meeting when your father is away on business." They greeted, giving her a brisk handshake.

Tamama turned to Momoka. She had a polite smile on her face, but she looked cool, and composed. The timid girl always chasing after Fuyuki was not here. Instead she was in her element and perfectly fitted for her birthright. It was easy to tell she felt calm and in power despite the disapproving looks she got around the room for being literally the only female in the room and so young compared to the rest. She knew she was better than the rest of them and that they needed her.

"Mistress Momoka, I will be standing by the door." Paul instructed. "If you need any materials for your power point you prepared I will be sure to supply them." Paul was already busy setting up a screen.

Tamama felt out of place from just how much Paul and Momoka knew about this business room. _I learned so much in case I was asked, but I feel out of place here. There's just a bunch of high class rich people._ Maybe the true power wasn't flies, but riches. He could believe that. Stupid high class.

"Miss Nishizawa, might I ask who your companion is? He's nobody I know from high society." One of the business men finally took notice of Tamama. He was narrowing his eyes as he gazed upon Tamama's face. Apparently Tamama had too much of a baby face for him.

"My adviser." Momoka introduced. "Tamama is an adviser of the Nishizawa estate and thus I brought him to this meeting." She explained.

"Nice to meetcha!" Tamama did not know how to talk as if he was high class. Momoka narrowed her eyes at him as if trying to nudge him in the right direction. "I mean...It's an honor to be here serving the Nishizawas?" He questioned.

"Seems a bit inexperienced to me." One of the businessmen pointed out. "And the way he looks-"

"What's wrong with the way I look? I'm adorable aren't I!?" Tamama asked a bit angrily. Getting dressed was hard. Wearing clothes was weird. And not having a tail was super duper weird. Why were these guys being so harsh on him for something so new?

"Oh. I apologize. I didn't mean you looked bad. Quite the opposite. You look as if you're just eye candy is what I'm saying. And I don't think an important business meeting is any place for Mistress Nishizawa to bring her boy toy." The man mocked.

 _I'm too adorable for this meeting?_ Tamama was shocked. _The ultimate insult. I can't deny it after all._ Of course he would look like a boy toy. He had managed to convince Momoka to lend him all sorts of expensive skin cremes because he still wanted to be adorable. Still he felt a sense of pride that he was better looking than all these guys and they probably worked way harder to look nice while he was effortlessly beating them at being a good looking human when he wasn't even human.

Momoka sighed. "Tamama is not my boy toy. He's not my type. We simply have a professional relationship." She wasn't even the least bit insulted or caught off guard by the insinuation. She couldn't care less about people's thoughts on her relationship with Tamama. She just plain rejected him.

The men frowned at her quick dismissal. "Well then, can he really prove that he's your adviser instead of just a pretty face?" They threw a graph over at Tamama. "Hey, kid. Solve this. These graphs are various small financial situations owned by the Nishizawa's. Yet money is being lost somewhere. Where?"

Tamama looked at the graphs. He had half a mind to say that the money was being lost on Fuyuki- the place that Nishizawa money was always being lost on, but he knew Momoka had trained him to find actual answers. That and the money she spent on Fuyuki was really just pocket change to her.

He looked carefully at the graphs. "You're spending too much money converting these materials into large vehicles, when you could make smaller vehicles and make more profit. Not to mention that some bits of money haven't been accounted for. It might be likely that somebody is stealing it. Also your advertising expense is too low. You gotta make it higher so people can know about the product." Tamama explained.

The business men's breathes were taken away. A few clapped since Tamama had proven himself. He knew what he was talking about.

Momoka smirked. "Now, I have a presentation I have made that has ideas on how we can try to bring our money up. I'm going to speak about it before any more nonsense happens." Momoka announced. Nobody could go against her wishes since she did have the most political power.

Tamama didn't sit down as she stood at the front of the table, instead he walked behind various businessmen trying to reach at their back. He tightly shut his eyes and tried to sense for a surge in energy- power.

Part one of the plan was finally happening. And Tamama could only hope that it went well. He just wanted to find the flyians and get over with it, then he might be able to reunite with Keroro.

He just had to keep moving and working for now.

* * *

Tamama went around the table, but for some reason he couldn't really sense anything. Some of the people felt powerful, sure, but nothing near the level of Haru. Nobody was out of the ordinary.

Momoka frowned as she saw Tamama frown and shake his head, over and over again as he pointed down to someone.

Momoka sighed. _We're not getting anywhere. But the flyians have to be somewhere around the Nishizawa's, right? After all Tamama was sent to the Nishizawa manor. They definitely suspected that we've encountered the flyians before directly. And them helping one of our board members is the best I can come up with for where they are._

She knew they weren't living in one of her direct family members. She would have known or noticed. And she trusted her mother and father. There was a chance that either of her parents could have encountered a flyian on their travels, but if they had she would have liked to think that her parents would have told her.

She tried to think about how to examine the board members more directly, to see if flyians were living within them. She became lost in thought and for a moment she stumbled in her speech about raising the Nishizawa funds.

That stumble was all one board member, her father's age, needed. He stood up dramatically slamming his hands on the table. "This plan is idiotic!" He proclaimed. "You shouldn't even be here." There was anger in his voice, obviously words were coming out that he had held back on a long time, waiting for a single moment when Momoka slipped up.

"What do you mean?" Momoka asked. "Elaborate." She ordered.

"You're not an economical genius. You're just the child of someone who is. The Nishizawa empire might be yours but it's yours only because you will be given it. All you did to achieve this was being born. So you should let us men get our work done instead of trying to input your own ideas. Your father can help us try to figure out how to gain more of the economy." He proclaimed.

Momoka frowned. She knew that most of the board members felt this way. They didn't really like her. _I felt unhappy about that for a while, but then I realized not everyone's going to like me and I'm better than them._ She didn't plan on firing them when she officially gained control of the company. It was always a good idea to keep your enemies close. And she couldn't wait to step on them.

She knew in part they just were infuriated and couldn't accept the fact that someone younger than them, and a girl, was a lot better at economics than they were. This was what she was meant to do. So she just ignored the man's pathetic outburst.

However Tamama hadn't been warned that the board members might treat Momoka this way. He just looked shocked that someone would even say something that cruel. "Momocchi? Are you going to stand for that?" He just asked in shock.

 _I know I'm supposed to be in the back looking for the flies, but they just insulted Momocchi!_ He couldn't stand for this.

"I'm standing for my presentation, not because some board member spoke to me." Momoka mostly ignored the board member.

Tamama's fists shook by his side. _Momocchi might ignore what he said, but I won't!_ Momoka was his friend. He didn't want her to be insulted or think that it was okay for people to insult her.

And Tamama was much worse at taking insults in a professional environment than Momoka. He walked over to the man that had spoken up and slammed his fist down upon his head.

"O-ow! O-ouch! W-what was that for? Guards!" The man rubbed his head.

"There's no need to call the guards on me." Tamama glared. He was done with this pretending to be an adviser charade.

Momoka rubbed her face. Tamama was drawing more attention to himself than he should be. And she knew exactly what was going to happen from here. There was going to be a fight.

"Nobody's going to insult Momocchi in front of me." Tamama declared. "Because I'm not just her adviser. I'm her body guard too!" He loudly proclaimed.

Momoka just groaned. "...You said the wrong thing, Tamama...Now that they know you're a fighter..." She just groaned. "We'll never get any work done now. This happens so much." She was mostly mumbling to herself.

All the business men stood up. But there wasn't fear in their eyes. Instead they were all smiling.

Tamama looked confused. "What are you all standing for?"

"I see that Mistress Nishizawa hasn't told you about all our hobbies. You see...Everybody who works in the Nishizawa empire isn't just a business man. We're all world renowned martial artists too!" They declared.

"Umm...Huh?" Tamama had forgotten how weird Nishizawa stuff was.

"If you want to declare yourself Mistress Nishizawa's protector and think you're a worthy enough body guard to stand up to us, you'll have to beat all of us. I declare this meeting to be over- instead a martial art tournament shall be held!"

Tamama just blinked and stared. But after a moment he smiled and pulled up his sleeves. "Gladly!" _I do like fighting and martial arts tournaments a heck of a lot more than boring business meetings after all._ He'd kick all their butts.

"Careful Tamama." Paul warned. "Some of them are pretty tough. Mistress Momoka, I, and her mother have already defeated everyone in this room, but they won't acknowledge you as an employee of the Nishizawa until you do the same. And holding a tournament means that other strangers can walk in to try to beat you so that you don't even get the chance to fight the board members."

Tamama nodded. "Got it. Don't worry about me. If there's anything I'm good at it's martial arts."

Momoka frowned. "Yet you still haven't beaten me..."

"That's because you're a scary monster!" Tamama whined.

Momoka's eye twitched. "Take that back!" She did finally express some anger as she grabbed Tamama by the collar.

Tamama gulped. "Ummm...I take it back?" He said rather frightened. "Can you let me go so I can do the martial arts tournament now?" He asked.

Momoka nodded after a second. She then leaned in closer to whisper something into Tamama's ears. "Don't beat them too quickly. Keep the matches going for a little longer to try to sense if they have any of those fly things."

Tamama nodded. _Almost forgot the real reason I came here. To find the flyians._ He had to find them. For his platoon. And to prove himself.

He was sure he would be able to sense if anyone had those flyians in the ring. It would be impossible to not sense them in a fight.

* * *

The martial arts ring that Momoka and the board members brought him to was much more impressive than he was originally thinking it would be. Cameras surrounded everywhere, and there were seats surrounding the entire area like a stadium.

"What's with all the cameras?" Tamama asked.

"It's normal for Nishizawa martial arts tournaments to be on television." Momoka explained. "Although during my initiation I specifically requested for it to not be broadcasted. I was a t-tiny bit shy."

"I don't know how you can say you were shy when you threw all of us to the ground at the same time." One of the board members frowned. He nodded though. Momoka's orders were to be followed so they couldn't broadcast her tournament.

Tamama's however- there was no reason not to let the whole world know about such a beat down. It was time for a little excitement.

Tamama looked at the cameras, and then looked at his hands. He flexed them a little bit turning them back and forth so he could see the palm and the back of his hand. They didn't look like his hands. They were not blue, and a far bit larger. Not only that but they had fingernails, something he would happily do without. The fingernails looked like they only got in the way of battle. They could get easily hurt in a punch.

"Cameras, huh? I'm going to be a star." Tamama smirked trying to keep an upbeat attitude. He always looked on the superior and adorable side of things. "Mr. Sergeant will definitely be proud of me when he sees what I'm doing on television!"

He stopped after he said that and frowned. It was true that there was a good chance Keroro would be watching television right now- it was Keroro after all, and he could be slacking off on the mission, but if Keroro saw him in this tournament it wouldn't mean anything to him.

Keroro wouldn't recognize him. He was a pekoponian now. There was nothing about him that looked like Tamama. He had human limbs, was dressed in human clothes, he even had human hair and the bone structure of a human.

The only thing that was even a little bit 'Tamama' was his eyes. If Tamama thought about it in a romantic sense his eyes still had his normal youthful energy. They were pure. But it was doubtful that Keroro would look at his eyes and be like "I know that guy. It's Tamama."

That was just some cliched love story. And Tamama knew Keroro wasn't smart enough to fall for that and figure him out. He probably didn't even know Tamama's battle moves well enough to use deductive reasoning- another skill Keroro probably didn't have- to figure out that Tamama was Tamama.

 _So...Mr. Sergeant won't be able to see my victories. He won't be cheering me on somewhere. He's not watching me._ Tamama realized with sadness.

This battle had nothing to do with impressing Keroro. He couldn't use the cameras to his benefit. They did not spark confidence in him

This battle was all about the mission and defending his friend's honor. It was just a martial arts tournament. That was it.

There was no Keroro and Tamama here.

"You ready, so called body guard?" One of the board members stepped into the ring.

Tamama wasn't smiling any longer. He wasn't as excited. But he took a deep breathe and smiled for Momoka's sake.

She was right. He had to find the flyians. _Momocchi's my friend too. I can't do everything just to impress Mr. Sergeant. I gotta save this planet that I've grown to love. The home of the candy. And I've gotta be there for Momocchi._

"Yeah. I'm ready." Tamama nodded and smiled. He put his fists out.

The tournament was about to began.

* * *

He side-stepped many opponents. He hit them with a giant punch to knock them out. He waited for some sense of intense energy from the flyians as he dodged blows. But nothing came.

"Don't use your Tamama Impact!" Momoka yelled from the sidelines. "We've gotta give them a chance to show if they have signs of intense energy!" She was constantly yelling out tips and moves. Tamama would have liked to appreciate it but it was kinda backseat driving.

 _But they don't! Nobody's showing any signs of having the flyians!_ He was winning the tournament, easily. He wasn't having much difficulty against these supposedly super tough board members.

Five, ten, twenty, he just kept beating more and more. Soon audience members were getting excited by all the violence and running up to challenge him too. It was a martial arts tournament after all.

Tamama was getting bored. Worst of all he knew he only had an hour max left to be human. And if he was caught in the middle of a tournament turning back into a frog, well that would be bad. Also he'd lose a lot of his sudden newfound height that was certainly helping him out. _I'm not going to find the flyians, am I?_ He realized.

When Tamama had almost given up hope, ready to just bounce out of there and try to figure out a different way of finding the flyians, a new challenger approached.

"What do you want, bub?" Tamama snapped. "I've already proven to being the toughest. I don't really feel like battling more. I'm ready to nap."

The challenger smiled. He had long silver hair that reached down to his waist. It covered his eyes too and he wore a sleeveless martial arts training outfit. His arms were really buff.

He ignored Tamama and instead stepped into the ring. "I don't have much time left, I don't have time to argue with you."

 _What's he talking about?_ Tamama wondered. "Well, I'm not going to fight you. I'm done now. Shoo." He flicked his wrists. He was running out of time too.

"I thought you were the young lady's body guard." The challenger sneered. "I would have thought you would want to protect her."

"Protect Momocchi from what?" This got Tamama's attention.

The man smiled and sat down on the floor of the ring. "I am going to kill Momoka Nishizawa. Why? Because I thirst to kill strong opponents. She is someone who I have heard is quite strong. But you've proven to be strong too."

Tamama took a step back. This guy wanted to kill them? For no other reason than he was strong? This guy was crazy.

"I do not have much time left. I am dying. But I wanted to destroy one last opponent before my death." The man sighed.

"Tamama!" Momoka ran over to the ring. "I know that guy! He was on TV once when I was little. He's some mysteries martial artist that travels the world, lured out by strong opponents who he kills!" She was about to jump into the ring. "You can't take him on alone. Let me help you-"

"Stop little Nishizawa! A true battle is not two against one. A glorious battle is always one against one. I'll fight you after I destroy him." The martial artist said.

"Why are you doing this? And if you're dying how can you even fight?" Tamama yelled.

"I have given up my body to a spirit of martial arts from above. In return I get power, but it is killing me. They tell me what my purpose is. And what to do. Killing you people-is something they want deeply." He nodded. "And I agree with them. I thirst to kill strong opponents."

"I'm not going to fight you fairly. Threatening my life is way too far-" Tamama yelled back, he reached out to help Momoka into the ring.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. This is my last battles. And I want them to be fair. I've planted several bombs inside this building before coming to the tournament. I have nothing left to lose. So if you don't face me I will blow everyone up, all of you, all the audience, and me. So face me on my terms or die anyway!" The challenger yelled. "Momoka Nishizawa this is your death."

Momoka bit her lip and looked down. She knew what was the right decision. Sometimes the right decision sacrificed one person. "Tamama...Can you take him?" She asked. Her hands fidgeted, wanting to take him on too. If things got dangerous she'd jump right in and help Tamama, but she needed to have faith in her friend.

"Yeah. I can take him." Tamama said confidentially. This guy might have been a little scary, but he had to believe in himself.

"Tamama! I advise you to not." Paul was the one who spoke up. "Get out of there, while the Nishizawa guards look for the bombs."

Momoka's and Tamama's eyes turned to Paul.

"I...I know of this mysteries challenger." Paul admitted. "In my youth I would also fight in tournaments. I came across him once in the mountains when I was training. He...He beat me and pummeled me into the ground."

"He beat even you, Paul?" Tamama asked in shock. That was years ago and this guy had probably only gotten stronger since. Tamama had never once beaten Paul. The situation was looking bad.

"He didn't kill me. I managed to escape. But when I looked at him on the ground in a bloody mess I saw a horrifying sight that haunted my nightmares. Flies were hatching from his skin, and there was this faint buzzing sound coming from his mouth. Looking back on it, I'm sure he had what Mr. Hinata had." Paul shivered.

 _He...He did say that a mysteries force had given him energy. Wait...The flies?_ He could sense how powerful this guy's aura was. So did this mean that it was never the Nishizawa's that had encountered the flyians? It was Paul during his adventures and Keron had just gotten confused and thought it was the Nishizawa's?

That made a certain amount of sense. Paul was always revealing new information about himself. He must have been the person with a direct encounter with the flyians.

 _So that means I definitely have to beat this guy. For the platoon._ His legs might have been shaking a bit because he was wondering if he could do it, but he still knew he had to. He hadn't been able to beat Haru and Haru was Fuyuki's father and thus a weakling- this guy was way stronger.

He had to redeem himself. He had to get those flies. For Pekopon. For Momoka's life. And for Keroro.

"Tama-" Momoka wanted to tell him to stop.

"I'll take you on." Tamama declared. "Come at me."

The challenger stood up. "I guess I won't be triggering any bombs yet." And like lightning he bolted at Tamama.

Tamama could barely see where he was, but he could feel the punch that hit his jaw. He immediately flew into the wall and before he could get up the challenger was up again. He was punching him over and over again into the concrete.

"T-tamama impact!" Tamama yelled trying to use his normal energy blasts. And out of his human mouth a giant burst of energy blasted forward.

The force pulled the challenger away. Tamama helped himself out of the hole shaped like him in the wall.

"Huff...Huff...That was the strongest Tamama impact I've ever had to use. That got him, right?" Now he could catch the flies.

As the smoke cleared from his impact he saw the challenger still standing. "Even you're most powerful move didn't leave a scratch on me. Pathetic. You are not a strong opponent."

And he launched forward again. Tamama tried to duck down and dodge, using the fact that he was smaller to his advantage, but he was not small enough.

The challenger grabbed him by the neck wrapping his hand around Tamama's throat. He then slammed him into the floor.

"Let's see how you're endurance is. Perhaps you're true strength lies in taking a hit. Not the most useful skill. But the forces from above say that being that it's the only skill canon fodder soldiers like you have." He started punching Tamama over and over again in the face, harder and harder each time.

 _I'm..I'm doing something. I did hurt him!_ Tamama noticed after a moment when he saw blood on the challenger's knuckles. His last attack must have done more than he thought, although he was getting dizzy.

 _Wait...No...That's not his blood._ He felt warm. It was his own blood on the challenger's hands. He was being beaten to a bloody pulp. He was going to die here!  
He heard a faint buzzing in his ears. And with his eyes only half open he saw something that no one else in the audience could see- flies hatching out of the tips of the challengers fingers and then sucking at Tamama's blood and clothes. There weren't very many, not nearly as many as were probably in the man. Only some.

Tamama could barely hear anything except the buzzing. He knew Momoka was crying the words "TAMAMA GET UP!" over and over again somewhere, but she sounded so far off. He didn't know what was happening.

His eyes closed without his permission as he continued being hit into a bloody pulp.

 _This...Isn't the first time I've been beaten into such a mess. Although that time was a lot different. It made bad and good memories. Ah, I want to return to that time._ He didn't want to be here anymore.

And soon his mind started drifting off to. To other times he had been pummeled into the ground.

* * *

It had been years ago- when Tamama had first joined the Keron Army. He was the maximum age to live in the orphanage so he had been kicked out.

 _Where will I go? How will I survive?_ Tamama had wondered. He had no life skills to help him live on his own or be 'adult' in any way whatsoever.

Luckily for Tamama, he hadn't had to make any difficult choices of where he would go and what he could do with his life. Keron swooped in and made the difficult decisions for lonesome youths like Tamama.

He had been quickly drafted into the Keron Army. Keron was an invader society so it did make sense. With no other thing that Tamama could do he was more than happy to be a soldier. He didn't really have any other options so he didn't feel that forced regardless of the circumstances.

He was quickly led away from the streets into various boot camps and training regimes. It only took a few short months for him to be deployed on his first mission.

"The mission is simple." A Major instructed them. "We're trying to invade this desert planet. However there's this giant sand worm in the way of one of the major cities we're trying to take out. That's where your group comes in."

Tamama looked around his group. There wasn't an assigned leader. _They all look so young. Wait, is everybody here my age or younger?_ That was when he started to get some sort of suspicion that things were off- that the group he was assigned to was worthless. It was only made up of other people that had no other place to go. No families, no home.

They were all the same. And Tamama felt himself shiver wondering what this 'special group's' job was.

"I've noticed that not all of you are looking at me." The Major's gaze glanced at Tamama and some others. "You've probably figured out what all of your group members have in common. You have no place to go. You're pointless. But you can still bring honor to Keron. Every person- every force has a purpose, even if that purpose is death."

 _D-death?_ Tamama was shivering. He noticed some others shivering too.

"You'll be the distraction. The suicide force against the giant sand worm. That should provide our more powerful, better trained forces to get to the city to take it over. Likely none of you will survive but doing this for Keron is 10x better than whatever you could have done in your worthless lives being sewer rats. You have no other place except to be in the army. So show your Keron pride and loyalty." The major addressed.

Tamama didn't want to die. But as he looked up at the Major he knew there was nothing he could say against him. After all the Major was completely right. The reason all Keronians existed was to bring pride to Keron. And he couldn't do anything else to help Keron.

He had no other purposes. After years of being family less there wasn't really any motive in Tamama. No dreams. Maybe perhaps being a 'suicide force' could bring something worthwhile to his life in the end.

"Yes sir!" All of the group saluted. They seemed to all think along the same line as Tamama.

The Major smiled. "Good. We'll transport you to the location. Remember your goal is to buy time and distract. Good luck, soldiers!"

They all smiled, although they weren't sure why.

* * *

It was a long slow journey to the location of the sand worm. They traveled under the cover of sand storms in a jeep. Nobody really talked. All Tamama did was think.

Did he want this? Was he really okay with being a suicide force? He could feel his hands shaking. He didn't want this.

 _I know!_ He finally decided. _I'm strong. I've got my energy blasts. I'll—I'll defeat that sand worm. Than Keron will be proud of me. I won't have to die. None of us will have to die._ He could do this. They hadn't been ordered not to defeat the enemy after all.

Keron just didn't believe that anyone could destroy the sand worm. They had probably already lost many soldiers trying. Now they didn't want to lose anymore in this war. Tamama could understand that. Sacrifice some for the many.

But he didn't want to die. "Hey. Let's try to win and fight. I mean we don't have to die, right?" Tamama suggested to the rest of the group.

Light illuminated their eyes. "You're right! If we kill the sand worm we'll make Keron proud! B-but do you think it's possible."  
"Definitely. We're strong." Tamama decided. He had confidence.

"Here we are. Good luck, troops!" The Major dropped off the troops in a sandy location. He then drove off at top speed.

Before Tamama could make a plan of action, he heard a growling noise behind him. He turned around. "I'm not afraid of you!" He yelled.

Then he saw who his enemy would be, what he would face. It was a giant worm with horrendous teeth larger than any skyscraper. It might have been over 200 feet tall. And it wasn't just one worm. No, it had multiple heads at least nine.

It took a big swallow and spit at the group of troops. Before they could attack, they scrambled for their lives the confidence no longer in them.

"It's just saliva-" Tamama wanted to say. But it had already hit two of the soldiers. And where two keronians used to be was only a melted mush.

Tamama froze. This was the first time he had seen someone die. He could feel his legs shaking in horror at just how gruesome it was. There wasn't even blood from the acid, just melted skin.

"We're just a meat shield! Keron won't be proud of us! Our mission is to die! There's no chance to win!" One keronian screamed. The worm went downward and gobbled up the keronian, the keronian tried to run but only his bottom half managed to wrangle free so that his legs and torso were just on the ground bleeding. The rest of him was gone.

Tamama screamed along with the rest of them. They had started off with so many troops but now more and more were getting destroyed. One of the heads of the sand worm noticed Tamama- his dark blue skin didn't camouflage him in the sand.

"GRRR!" It growled and launched forward.

 _It's now or never to use my power-_ Tamama realized. He had to live. He wanted to live. He was afraid of dying. He didn't want to die. "TAMAMA IMPACT!" He yelled, blowing up the head.

There was a screaming sound from the other heads as the ninth head melted away.

"I...I did it! I'm destroying it." Tamama fell backwards onto the sand. Some of his comrades looked at him. They looked excited. Then Tamama saw the excitement flicker back to despair.

Tamama looked at the sand worm- then he saw what was happening. Where the whole that a head had been, two heads sprouted. The worm now had ten heads.

"N-no...No way...It regenerates?" Tamama said with horror. "So….So that's why they knew we couldn't beat it...We're going to die. I'm going to die!" He wanted to scream.

More comrades got eaten and acided. Tamama weakly tried to run. There was nowhere to run in the desert though. His skin felt dry.

He grabbed a gun that the Major had given them. They all had weapons although guns had never been his strong point. He tried to shoot the sand worm, but it didn't even seem to make a dent. The hide was too tough.

"AHHH! HA! HA! WAHH!" Tamama was crying. He just kept throwing down broken guns. He jumped over melted keronian bodies.

The screams and the loud growling of the sand worm were all he could hear. But even if anyone tried to run they would be killed anyway.

Tamama didn't know how long the battle lasted- but soon enough the dust in the air had settled. He could see clearer and he realized he had somehow managed to be the last one alive. Several keronian bodies dropped from the sand worm's teeth.

"P-please...Please don't kill me. I didn't really want to do a suicide mission. I should h-have refused. Keron isn't...I thought we were all important to Keron! I wanted to be important too! I just wanted to be important to someone!" Tamama's body was weak. He was tired from running and screaming from the sand worm's blows. He was out of energy from his Tamama impact's. There was nowhere else to go.

"I don't care about doing good for Keron. I don't want to die!" Tamama bawled, grabbing the sand hoping it would keep him from being torn apart by the sand worm.

The sand worm descended. It grabbed Tamama and picked him up in his teeth. It tossed him into the air and tilted one of it's heads back to swallow him whole.

 _I'm going to die. This is it._ Tamama realized, his eyes wide. All he could see was the deep abyss of the sand worm's throat and the sky.

There was no more reason to be afraid. No reason to hope. There was only despair in him. All he felt was that he had given up.

It was over.

 _Swoosh._ He heard something coming at a high speed in the distance. Before he had fallen it grabbed him. He felt himself jerk up as he felt arms around him.

"GRRR!" The sand worm let out a large angry growl that it had not eaten Tamama. It rocketed out of the sand and became even larger.

Tamama looked up at whatever had caught him. With his luck it was probably a bird trying to get a snack. He was dead anyway.

But instead of seeing death, he saw light. The sun rays blocked the face of his savior but it was clearly a keronian- the keronian was wearing the classic technology of wings after all, so that he could fly at high speeds.

He was green. Tamama noticed that much.

"Are you the last one alive?" The keronian spoke.

Tamama was actually a bit surprised that the keronian was talking to him. He at first didn't know what to say. He was still in shock that he wasn't dead. "I-I'm s-sorry." Was all he managed to say. He hadn't died yet. He felt himself clinging to the keronian, almost afraid that he would be dropped into the sand worm's mouth to buy time.

The keronian flew down to the ground and gently placed Tamama there. Tamama grabbed at the keronian's arm. "N-no! I can still do things for Keron! Don't leave me here! Please!" He begged.

The keronian's face turned to him. Tamama could finally see it. The keronian flashed a smile to him and it almost managed to sooth him for a moment.

 _A star insignia? That must be just a fashion statement...It can't be the Keron star, right?_ The Keron star was rare and important. But this keronian was wearing a star insignia.

"I'll be right back. I just gotta kill this sand worm." The keronian pulled out a light saber that had been sheathed at his belt. He pressed a button and a shield unwhirled itself at his arm.

"You can't kill it! It regenerates it's heads!" Tamama yelled.

"Apparently if there's enough heat when you slice at it's neck it can't regenerate. This light saber is as hot as a sun beam. A direct hit from it should burn." The Keronian blasted off.

Before Tamama could shout another warning the Keronian was right in the sand worm's face. In mere seconds he moved forward like lightning and sliced the sand worm's neck.

 _CRASH!_ The dead remains of the sand worm fell into the ground. A wave of sand flew into the sky.

Tamama coughed. _He got it? He killed it when the rest of us tried so hard?_ This guy was impressive! He managed to defeat what nobody else could.

He looked around desperately in the sky for his savior. But he couldn't see anything thanks to the sand in the air.

 _Oh no, did he leave me to die in the desert? I was supposed to die here! Maybe he only came to end the sand worm. Not to help out here. He doesn't care about my life._ Tamama shivered. He'd die in the desert anyway. Keronians needed water.

He felt himself get picked up again. He looked around and he was back in the keronians arms.

"See? I told you I'd come back." The keronian pointed out as he flew upward out of the sand cloud and into the sky, holding Tamama in a sort of bridal style. Tamama grabbed his shoulder trying not to be dropped.

 _He came back for me?_ Tamama couldn't fathom this. This didn't make any sense to him. Why had this keronian saved him? Why was he alive?

"So you must really be the last one...You almost died too in that battle." The keronian was looking down at the ground and the corpses with a bird's eye view.

"I'm sorry-I know my job was to die, but please...Please don't leave me here-" Tamama begged.

The keronian sighed a little exasperated. "You need to be more careful!" He scolded. "You almost died. If I didn't come you would have died."

"But...My job was to die. I was the front line soldier. The meat shield." Tamama explained. He didn't mind that this guy was scolding him. Honestly it made him feel a little bashful. Nobody had ever scolded him about his safety before. But it didn't make sense. Obviously this keronian didn't know what his job was.

"That's stupid. A battle is always about losing the least amount of soldiers. Every life matters. Your life matters and you should hold yourself to that. Next time any stupid higher up tries to assign you to a mission like that refuse. There are other things you can have in your life besides bringing fake pride to Keron. You can bring real pride." The Keronian lectured.

Tamama was speechless for a second. Nobody had ever told him that. _M-my life matters?_ He was still spinning from being told that.

This keronian hadn't come to abandon him. This keronian must have been sent from the heavens to save him. He had managed to survive his first battle and he had found someone who was telling him even small things to bring his confidence up.

"Now I have to go get you to safety. Hold on tightly, mmkay?" The green keronian requested.

"Okay!" Tamama nodded, smiling. He didn't know how he could smile so quickly after such a frightening battle, but for some reason this keronian made him want to smile.

This keronian had given him his life. He seemed to care more about his life than anyone he had met. This guy was giving him his dreams. _He's a hero. He must be._ Tamama decided. He had heard a lot about heroes. He had seen them on television.

He never thought he'd meet a cool action hero in his life who went around saving people and winning hearts- but now he knew those people existed. _He's my hero. He saved my life._

"Ummmm...Mister…?" Tamama fumbled as they flew. There was something that still bugged him. "Do...Do you think I'm worthless for not fighting as much as the rest of them? They died after all so they must have tried to bring more pride to Keron than I did...So am I worthless?"

He needed to know where his worth as a soldier stood. And he still felt bad for not making Keron proud.

"You're not worthless." The keronian responded. "I saw from a distance the energy blast you used. It was pretty cool!"

Tamama smiled. _It was cool?_

"You're important to Keron." The keronian re-established. "Remember it."

Tamama smiled. He would. This keronian had given him the confidence he needed to feel he was more than a worthless soldier. He didn't want to leave the army. But he didn't want to die. He would make Keron proud.

He would become like this hero. He would never go through another suicide mission like this one. He was better than this. He could have a home and a family.

This keronian didn't want him to die. He wanted him to be safe. So he would.

* * *

Eventually the keronian reached one of Keron's desert outposts and dropped Tamama off to recuperate.

"Well I gotta go now. Please rest up! You went through a lot today." The keronian told him, leading him to the medical bay.

His hand was still on Tamama's. Tamama didn't mind holding the keronian's hand. It actually made him blush quite a bit. He knew there wasn't anything besides kindness there on the keronian's part, but he liked holding his hand.

"Ummm...Mister..." Tamama gulped, feeling himself blush before his hero ran off. Could he be a little bold?

The keronian turned to face him.

"Can I ask my hero his name?" Tamama tried to take up a somewhat flirtatious tone. He really didn't know how to act around cute guys who rescued him.

The keronian smiled a bit to himself. "Keroro. My name is Sergeant Keroro." He smiled. "Your name?"

"Tamama." Tamama replied.

"It's nice to see you, Tamama." There was something a little sad to his voice. "And...Don't worry too much about your first battle. It's all right to feel scared. I remember being terrified during my first battle too. I remember having my life flash before my eyes, while simultaneously feeling that that was the first and last moments of my life. But what's important is that you survived. We both survived. Living is always the first priority." Keroro advised.

Tamama's eyes sparkled. His hero was trying to relate to him! Keroro was so cool. He was totally an idol. He was kind and amazing and cute- he was his idol.

Keroro waved to him and left. Tamama knew it might be the last time he saw his idol in person but he still felt his heart beating faster than usual and he knew it wasn't just because he had almost died.

 _He's so cool….Sergeant Keroro is so cool._ He felt himself having heart eyes.

He smiled a little bit and went off to one of the medical beds to sit down.

* * *

There was a TV in medical bay, and there was a lot of news about various things happening on the planet. Sergeant Keroro was often on the news too.

"Aww darn it, it's Sergeant Keroro again!" One of the other keronians in medical bay complained.

Tamama glanced over. He felt a bead of annoyance. _What do you mean 'again?' Sergeant Keroro is the greatest!_ He wanted to ask that punk what he had said.

"It wasn't so annoying seeing him everywhere last year. He was much cooler then. Cruel and blood thirsty, there were always amazing stories about Sergeant Keroro. I even met him once myself." The keronian seemed to be caught up in gossiping with one of the nurses. "He didn't care about anyone, victory was ensured when he was around because he didn't worry about the common foot soldier. The Keroro _from back then_ was so much cooler than the Keroro today. I expected better from him than trying to go around stopping small deaths."

Tamama got up off the bed. "Say that again, punk?" He walked over. "Sergeant Keroro is not like that. He's kind and heroic. He is better. You don't need to expect more from him! He's perfect. You're the one who needs to be better." Tamama picked an immediate fight to defend his new hero.

And just like that, the keronian snapped and punched Tamama. The medic could not stop the fight that then ensued. Tamama was still weak from battle and was easily pummeled into the ground.

Hit after hit happened. Tamama was unable to struggle free. But as he was hit he thought. _Oh. I get it. Sergeant Keroro is better than a hero to me. I like him._

After all Sergeant Keroro was the only one who made him feel like he mattered. He was the only one who believed in him. He was a hero to all, but especially Tamama.

* * *

Tamama remembered that that was what sparked his obsession with Keroro. That was what made him swear his undying love. It was defending Keroro from people insulting him, getting pummeled into the ground and realizing how important Keroro was to him after watching television- it had all led to Keroro becoming his crush.

It had all led him to Pekopon to be with Keroro. Not Keron's file. He would have tried as hard as he could to get to Pekopon anyway, applying over and over again to be by Sergeant Keroro's side.

He had to prove that he was there for him too. Just like Keroro had been there for him. He had to save the planet they both loved. He had to capture the flies.

Tamama's eyes opened. He still heard the buzzing.

" _So...That's what your motives are. You're in love with that keronian."_ He heard the flies voices. Tamama felt little fly feet on his forehead.

"A-are you reading my mind?" Tamama gave a strangled gasp. "G-get out. Those are my private memories!" He didn't know these flies could even read minds.

The martial artist challenger stopped pummeling him for a moment. He froze as Tamama tried to speak, bloodied and bruised.

Tamama felt small tears drop onto his face. The challenger's expression remained neutral, but he was clearly crying on Tamama.

" _Love stories are so sad."_ It was the flies voice again. They must have been hatching out of his tear ducts or something like that. It was probably the only way flyians could cry. Out of their host bodies.

Tamama tried to move his fingers. He had to get up. He had to stop this beating. _My time as a pekoponian is about to expire. I need to finish this fight quickly or else the world will know about aliens-_

He couldn't move though. He was so battered, so broken.

"Tamama, I'm coming in!" Momoka shouted. "I don't care about any bombs-"

"No, Mistress Momoka. You can not." Paul ordered, pulling her away from the ring as she tried to climb in.

"But Paul- he'll die. Or he'll turn back into-it's all on camera! We've got to help!" Momoka cried.

"I don't intend to do nothing." Before Momoka could stop him, Paul jumped over the elastic in the ring.

He ran over right as the challenger was yelling. "It is the end for you!" He brought his hand up to slam it towards Tamama.

Tamama had just managed to work up the strength to get up. But he didn't have enough strength to dodge. Paul jumped in front of him just as the challenger punched.

The challenger punched his hand through Paul's abdomen. Blood fell to the ground and Paul fell forward.

"PAUL!" Both Momoka and Tamama screamed.

Paul gasped. "I told you...Mistress...I wasn't going to let him kill Tamama." Paul reached out and grabbed the challenger by the leg. He pulled off his glove and smeared something on him. "This is a Poison creme." He said with a sneer. "You're already dying so you won't have the strength to fight against it."

Paul took a shallow breath as he glanced over to Momoka and Tamama. "Please Mistress Momoka and Tamama...If you learn one lesson from me always protect the ones you love and care about. Like I always have for you too."

"P-paul!" Momoka sobbed. "Tamama! Please! You've gotta drag him out of the ring. I'll get my medical personnel to take him to the hospital immediately."

"I can't just leave the fight!" Tamama yelled.

Momoka wiped away her tears. "You'll change back soon anyway. You're on a time limit. You need to leave the fight."

"But the bombs-" Tamama shouted.

"Everyone with a brain have already evacuated. And losing a Nishizawa building is no real problem. I've lost whole islands for Fuyuki. It's just pocket change." Momoka stared at the challenger in anger. "I'll take this guy on in your place. Just run."

Tamama didn't want to. He glanced over at the challenger who was trying to quickly cut off circulation from his leg that had been poisoned.

 _I don't have a choice. I'm too hurt to continue. And sometimes victory isn't about winning. It's about living. That's what Mr. Sergeant taught me._ Tamama grabbed Paul and tried to haul him out. "You better not die, Mommocchi!"

Tamama then ran out of the ring with Paul as he changed back into a frog away from the cameras.

Momoka nodded and jumped into the ring.

"Oh? I wanted to beat your bodyguard first but I suppose I don't have enough time if I want to face you. I'm the strongest human martial artist in the world. What are you going to do against me?" The challenger asked.

Momoka looked at him. "I highly doubt you're the strongest. I know who the strongest is and it's my mom. And I am my mother's daughter." Her hair pointed and she stood forward. There was no fear in her gaze. "Now come at me. I doubt you can win when I'm going all out and not worrying about anyone else's perception of me. There's no Fuyuki here to save you."

The challenger smiled and ran forward. But to his shock Momoka batted him away and spun as fast as she could grabbing him by the arm and swinging him into the wall. She continued spinning like a torpedo and jumped up and kicked him in his face.

He rubbed off a little blood. "Momoka Nishizawa...You're doing fairly well."

"Getting even a scratch on a Nishizawa is much harder than you think. Gaining 51% of the world is much harder than fighting you." Momoka boasted.

The challenger growled and launched himself at her again. Momoka jumped above him and kicked him in the jaw.

He screamed in pain. "B-but….I have given up my body to those from above to be the strongest!"

"Cry me a river. I've had myself split into two different people before, been turned into a ghost, and turned into a fifty foot woman. Making your body something else doesn't change who you are on the inside. And it turns out I'm stronger than you." Momoka mocked again. She ran forward and continued to punch.

"TAMAMA IMPACT!" Tamama said from the background. There was no reason to fight fair against someone who was trying to kill them. He was behind the wall so the cameras couldn't see.

A Tamama impact was the last thing the challenger saw, along with Momoka's fists. And he was beaten just like that.

He fell to the ground and Momoka grabbed his arms so he couldn't punch anymore. His mouth opened and she assumed he was going to say something like 'how could you?" but instead a swarm of flies exited his body.

Momoka's hands were busy holding him down and neutralizing the threat. Tamama didn't move fast enough as the swarm of flies flew off.

" _Nice job. Momoka Nishizawa. You truly are an interesting subject. Our powers have not made you or your family strong. You've done it all on your own. You truly deserve to be the ruler of the economy."_ And the flies were gone with that line. It was as if they felt that they were parting on good terms.

"ARGH! We're not friends! Get back here!" Momoka yelled, dropping the challenger's arms. She looked down at the challenger and she noticed that he did not look like how he used to.

He was ashy. His body was think and bony and white. He was decomposing quicker than someone should be.

He was melting away to a skeleton. Momoka covered her mouth when she realized he was dead.

She took a step back and turned away. "He'll be cleaned up later after all the bombs are taken down. Guards, assure that Paul is getting medical treatment!" She ordered.

And just like the leader she was, she jumped out of the ring saying nothing more about it.

* * *

Tamama was a long way away from there. After the flies had exited the challenger's body he had ran off to chase them- after making sure Paul was in stable condition with the paramedics.

He knew Momoka had to do clean up, but he could still catch the flies. And soon he was away from the Nishizawa building and on a hill.

He saw the swarm of flies. He had finally caught up, despite his bruises and blood.

" _We were waiting for you."_ The flyians said.

That stopped Tamama. "Are you planning to kill me? It's harder than you think. I have a job. And that's to live."

The mass of flyians seemed to shake back and forth as if they were shaking their head. _"We've read your memories, don't you remember? And now we know who you are."_

"I'm second class Private Tamama. A proud member of the Keroro platoon!" Tamama declared. "No surprises there."

" _We're a sucker for love stories."_ They revealed.

"What? You mean you have like hobbies and interests? Weird that it would be romance dramas or something." Tamama was surprised but teased them nonetheless.

" _And from your memories we've established that you are the most harmless keronian. You're worthless to Keron because you're not going after us for their sake. You have no motive to try to prove yourself in their eyes. You only have one goal and one wish and that's to prove yourself to Sergeant Keroro. Not Keron. So you out of everyone are the least likely to be our enemy."_ They explained.

"Oh? And what makes you so sure about that? I think I'm even more likely to be your enemy because I'm not trying to prove myself to something that will never acknowledge me. I'm trying to prove myself to a real person who I can easily impress by capturing you!" Tamama yelled and grabbed for the flies.

They just flew above him. _"But will he really love you if you capture us? There are many other things standing in your way. Just capturing us won't bring you the love that you want. And you know that."_

Tamama was about to argue, but he stopped himself. They were kinda right. Keroro might praise him and he really wanted that praise but there were several issues in the way of their romance.

 _Wait...They're talking to me as if they want something from me...They aren't fighting me. There's something they need._ Tamama was using his brain. He tried to suppress a smile.

They needed something from him. He could use this. He needed to know what they wanted. "So...You're obviously talking instead of fleeing for some reason. What is it you want?" Tamama stretched out his arms as if he had the upper hand.

The flyians were silent for a moment when they realized Tamama knew they wanted something. _"The keronians finding us do concern us. You tracking us and trying to capture us is a problem. But we love this planet. We've decided to fight for our home. We think this time we can beat the keronians. Things aren't like they were generations ago."_

"So? What does this have to do with me? You thinking you can turn me traitor against Keron?" Tamama asked.

" _No. You see, we feel like we can deal with Keron on our own. We can fight. But there is one thing we can't fight against. And that's what concerns you."_ They tried to negotiate.

Tamama looked up at the flyians confused.

" _From brief flashes of your memories it looked like one of your 'obstacles'. We're allies solely for the reason we share a combined enemy. You see it's that angol girl who's a problem. She's a force to fear. We want rid of her-"_

"You and me both, buddy." Tamama agreed. "But there's nothing I can do about her. I've been trying to get her off this planet for years but she's just like 'oh I gotta stay and be lovey dovey with Uncle.'"

" _She seems to trust you. If you brought her to us with her guard down we could all be rid of her. So please give us the angol girl named Angol Mois. That is what we want from you."_ They revealed.

Tamama frowned. It made sense. They had expressed fear about Angol Mois before. That was what had caused them to jump out of Haru's body. And he didn't like Angol Mois either….But he couldn't work with the flyians.

He was a member of the Keroro Platoon. He had to capture them. For Pekopon. For Keroro. And he knew morally it wasn't that kill Angol Mois because he was jealous of her. Didn't mean at times he didn't want to, but...He knew it was wrong.

Nothing about this bargain seemed to be the right choice or good for him. Yet that dark part of him that was tired of Keroro not paying attention to him, not even noticing how much he cared, was considering it.

 _No. I have to capture the flyians. That was what Mr. Sergeant told me. I'm going to capture the flyians._ He looked at the flyians.

They were stronger than him. They had proven that much in the ring. He couldn't capture them with just brute force. And brute force was most of what he had.

He had to use his brain to capture them. And at the moment one very appealing idea was coming to him.

If he got all of the flyians in one place he could catch them. He could use the tools that had been supplied to him to cage them. He could save Pekopon from being torn apart by Keron. He could make Keroro proud.

But how could he get all the flyians in one place? Well it was obvious. Keron had taught him how in his first battle. They had done the same to distract the sand worm by using young soldiers as a meat shield or 'bait' while the other soldiers got past.

He would use Angol Mois as bait. All of the flyians would surely be there to destroy her. They'd need all of their forces after all.

She'd just have to go through the same thing Keron had put him through.

 _I'm not worthless! I can prove myself to Mr. Sergeant. With or without him being by my side. If he doesn't want to be here he doesn't have to. But I'm the one with a plan and a way to lure out the rest of the flyians._

They didn't see Tamama as a threat. And that was exactly what he needed.

He smiled at them. "I'll give you that woman." He agreed. "She listens to me. You're right. It should be easy when I see her again."

He didn't think about if Mois could get hurt. Honestly part of him didn't particularly care still hating her, another just didn't want to deal with any guilt that he was doing something so evil.

Right now Pekopon's safety was his priority. He couldn't care less about Mois. _I wonder….If choosing one person over the safety of a planet or something like that are decisions that leaders have to make all the time. I feel like my decision to use that woman as bait is kinda on the level of what Keron did to us, but honestly I don't feel bad. I'm making the smart choice._

He felt kind of proud. He was making leader decisions. Keroro must have made choices like this too. He obviously had when he saved him, choosing the life of the common soldiers over the mission.

 _I wonder if on Pekopon Mr. Sergeant has ever chosen others over my well being and safety..._ Tamama thought with a moment of sadness in his mind. _He's definitely chosen to hang out with others over me._

He dismissed the thought. He was a strong leader now making tough choices. Using people as bait. Keron would have been proud.

The flies gave him a meeting place. They formed a giant hand to shake Tamama's " _We'll be waiting till next time, Tamama."_ They flew off.

 _I wonder...Should I tell Mr. Sergeant about the plan?_ It was a smart one after all. And he was proud that he had thought of it. That and it would be much easier to trap the flyians with all of the platoon on his side.

He frowned realizing telling Keroro was not a good idea. _No. Mr. Sergeant would be really really mad. He would flip at me using that woman as bait._ He grinded his teeth in anger. Keroro cared for Mois's well being, of course he'd be mad.

 _Mr. Sergeant...probably loves that woman. I've been denying it for a long time but he does. He never loved me. All he did was save me from a war and spoke normal kind things to me. Anyone with decency would do the same. That isn't love. But...He probably loves that woman. Because she's always been by his side and she's all 'perfect and cute' or something like that._ He really did hate Mois. _He definitely wouldn't want her in harm's way. He'd protect her._ He didn't want Keroro protecting her.

 _I hate her. I hate her so much for stealing Mr. Sergeant from me. Being trapped on Pekopon even as bait for Keron with Mr. Sergeant would be so much better without her here._ Tamama frowned.

Well Mois's safety wasn't his concern. Her life was in her and the flyians hands. She was just a stepping stone to the right path. He'd be done with her soon enough.

Tamama no longer knew where he was in the world. Was he helping the flyians? Helping Keron? Preventing a war? Or trying to start a petty fight between Angol Mois and the flyians?

He didn't know. He was just Tamama. A keronian filled with dark thoughts and desires, and his own selfish petty motives. All he had was his one dream- his one desire. That was all he knew.

All he wanted was to prove himself to Keroro. All he wanted was Keroro.

He needed to stop wanting. He needed to start trying.

 _I will have him._ Tamama smiled to himself.

* * *

 **I would love to hear your reviews. And yes unfortunately Tamama's going to make some bad decisions because he makes the same mean choices in the show. But he is one of the main characters so there will be a lot more of him.**

 **Also the reason Tamama has no family in this fanfic is because of the one chapter where the Keroro platoon goes to kindergarten and Tamama talks a little bit about his past and how after training school nobody would ever come to pick him up.**

 **Next chapter is Kululu.**


	9. Dime a Dozen

**Forgive me. This is the Kululu chapter. I made it much too long. It was my mistake. I do not know how this happened. Also I took several days to write this so that's why it might be disjointed.**

 **Umm...Some kurumois in this chapter. Also I feel like I accidentally gave Saburo more to do than Kululu.**

* * *

Kululu just lay his head against his keyboard at his computer screen. There was a long line of jumbled keyboard smashing on the screen. He didn't particularly care.

His thoughts weren't on the flyians. His thoughts weren't even on the platoon splitting up. It was just on the fact that Keron had never had it in their minds that the invasion would be successful. That they didn't want the Keroro platoon to ever go back home, there was no more purpose for them, that they were done with them and that if they lived or died was no concern of Keron's.

Kululu wasn't like Giroro, Dororo or Tamama. When insulted he either lashed out very sinisterly and violently or he tried to step on whatever pathetic 'feelings' he was feeling and pretend they didn't exist.

However when something important to him just fell apart in front of his eyes- when he realized he wasn't the master but the tool, he didn't really have anyplace to go when being backed into a corner.

He had been always trying to do his best at the invasion. He wasn't anything like Giroro who had sabotaged things from the inside. He wasn't a traitor like Dororo to the military. He wasn't more focused on impressing someone else than invading like Tamama. All Kululu was here for was his job and maybe a few laughs along the way.

Even though he was a jerk he still prided himself on being competent. That was more than the rest of the platoon could say about themselves. Sure, them being used as bait didn't surprise him, but he would have expected him to be some sort of observer- the one competent member of the platoon to ensure that any mission they were given had some chance of completion.

He hadn't expected that Keron would waste his potential. That his potential wasn't even considered a waste.

He hadn't expected to be literally worth nothing. And Kululu didn't know how to react to that. With Keron gone and not coming back for a few months there was nobody to take his frustrations out on. And so they just double-backed on himself.

He felt broken. So broken. He just...He didn't feel anything really. He didn't want to do anything. What was the point?

Keron wasn't going to give him his job back. It wasn't like there was anything else he could do besides inventing in a militaristic fashion. He had one place he belonged, and it turned out that was a lie.

So he didn't really want to do anything except lie at his table. There was no point in helping Pekopon or focusing on anything.

"Maybe...Maybe I shouldn't have pushed so hard for the truth." Kululu sighed to himself. He had egotistically believed that the truth had nothing to do with his place. It hadn't even occurred to him.

Yet the truth had knocked him off of his high and mighty pedestal. He had gotten it, but at what cost? He clearly didn't like it. _It was so terrible that I didn't want it. I felt like my job was to question and get information regardless of what that information was. But I don't even have a 'job' anymore._

He had only felt this betrayal and insult one time before. That time he hadn't given up. He had decided to tug on the rope of ambitions that Keron had given him and cling on for dear life. He still had somewhere to go after all.

That was when he was knocked down to Sergeant Major. But he had not given up.

This time there was no way to climb back up. He had fallen off to the very bottom. The rope had been pulled up and was gone.

There was no more ambition in life for Kululu. Nowhere to go.

So he just gave up letting himself feel nothing.

* * *

It was several days later. All of the rest of the Keroro platoon had already left for their various searches for the flyians.

Saburo was getting worried. _Keroro contacted me before he left. Asked for me to keep Kululu on track with the whole 'saving the planet thing'._ He had of course agreed, because well, he lived there. Made perfect sense to help out the planet. And he knew Kululu was a slacker, especially when something seemed to be for the 'greater good'.

The problem was that Saburo hadn't seen Kululu at all in the last few days. He didn't know if the little guy was doing a worldwide search in his lab for where the flyians would likely be, he hadn't heard anything.

He had tried contacting Kululu on his phone and leaving texts saying he'd love to help out but he'd gotten no word back. It appeared like he was completely out of the loop about this whole 'search for the flyians thing'.

"Maybe he's already gone off somewhere and he just didn't take me. I mean I'm not the most interested in the Keroro platoon's adventures. Makes sense that he wouldn't ask me to come with." Saburo reminded himself.

He opened the curtains on his windows and peered outside his house as if to look for Kululu.

 _No way. He'd never come to my house to say good-bye. He says I live in a pig-sty and has sworn never to be here again._ Saburo didn't really understand the pig-sty bit. Sure his house was a mess but at least it had lighting unlike Kululu's lab.

Truth be told neither of them were the best at interior decorating.

 _From what I heard from Keroro they'll all be investigating something that's connected to their human partner. Most likely Kululu would be investigating my school then._ He had actually been to school in the past few days and there was no Kululu.

He had even stopped by Kululu's lab. Nobody had answered his knocks. Perhaps Kululu was just gone and off on his own adventure?

Saburo sighed. _Well if that's how he wants to be, not bringing me along, fine! I'll do my own investigating._ He wasn't going to just not look for the flyians after all. His planet was on the line!

He closed the curtain and turned around. He needed to get a rain coat that wasn't hideous so he could go outside. This might be a serious adventure but he still had to look good.

 _Ding-Dong!_ There was a ringing at his door. The doorbell must have been triggered.

"Funny...I didn't know I had a doorbell." Saburo frowned. He went over to the door and opened it.

Outside his door Angol Mois stood holding her cell phone and playing a door bell ringing sound. She was looking perplexed about the fact that there was no door bell. She stopped the ringing once Saburo opened the door.

"Saburo!" She smiled in relief. "That's good that you're here! I thought you had left too."

"Like the rest of the platoon?" Saburo leaned on the door frame. "They left you to house sit?"

"No. I mean, Aki can watch her own house." Angol Mois corrected. "It's just..." She tried to move some of her wet hair out of her face. She had obviously rushed to Saburo's in a hurry, so much that she had gotten wet in the rain. "I haven't been able to find Kululu in the last few days." She confessed.

"Kululu?" Saburo asked. _Does she think he's with me or that he told me where he was going?_ Well then they were both a little out of the loop. Kululu had told neither of them what he was up to.

"He just straight up disappeared after that first day when the colonel came down! He was there for a few hours but then he just- poof! Vanished!" Angol Mois threw her arms up in the air clearly worried. "I'm worried about him. Where could he have gone off to? He hasn't sent me any emails or texts at all to tell me what he's up to. I have no idea where he is."

"Maybe he's off finding the flyians?" Saburo suggested. It was the only thing he could think of. Kululu wasn't the sort to be kidnapped although Angol Mois might be thinking he would be.

"B-but...He was supposed to take me with him. We were working as a team to find them after all." Angol Mois frowned.

"You...Were?" That was news to Saburo. "I would think that you would have gone off to help Keroro find the flyians. Since it will be many many months without Keroro." He teased.

Angol Mois gave a deep frown. "It...It was Uncle's decision. He thought that the tech team should probably stay together." She was crossing her arms. She clearly hadn't gotten a choice in the matter of where she was going or what she was up to. And there was a hint of bitterness to her words about how little of a choice she had gotten.

 _Well...I guess that makes sense. With Kululu it's best to surround him with as many people as possible to keep him on track._ Saburo thought. "Oh." He didn't really have any words of reassurance for Mois about how she couldn't be traveling with Keroro and being all lovey-dovey with him. "Um...Did Kululu know you were supposed to be working with him?"

"Yes. He told me to stay with the computers so I could communicate with him if he needed it. And then poof- no more Kululu. He'll return none of my calls, nothing!" Angol Mois didn't sound angry. Just super worried. "Do...Do you think the flyians might have captured him somehow?"

"I think that's doubtful. Kululu wouldn't get himself lured into a trap. Also I think he'd scare any flies away." Saburo quickly reassured a bit worried Mois would start bawling on him. _His face is kinda scary. That and I'm sure that the fact he bathes in curry would turn them off from being anywhere near him._

Mois sniffled. "Y-yeah. You're right. Kululu's pretty smart. He wouldn't get captured." She thought for a moment. "That's actually why I came here. I know Kululu was supposed to be investigating your school since that's where Keron sent him originally. I thought you might have seen him."

Saburo opened the door wider to let Angol Mois into his house so she could sit down. "Unfortunately I'm as in the dark about Kululu's location as you are." He sighed.

"Oh no...So he might be in trouble?" Angol Mois immediately jumped to conclusions.

"No, no I'm sure he's fine." Saburo pat her back and reassured. "How about this...I'm supposed to be helping him look for the flyians too. Since we're currently missing a Kululu who probably has more information on where those things are than either of us, why don't we work together to find him? I'm sure we'll locate him quickly together."  
"You could say, two brains are better than one!" Angol Mois agreed.

"Heads." Saburo quietly corrected, "Heads."

Still Saburo's mind drifted elsewhere as Mois cheerily suggested ideas of where Kululu had gone. Saburo had an inkling of an idea of what Kululu was doing. And none of it was good. _Does he have any real desire to protect this planet? I mean, nothing's really in it for him. It's not his planet. He's counted down the number of hits it takes Mois to destroy this place, so maybe he's just completely ditched because he doesn't care about catching the flyians._

Now that the Keroro platoon was no longer protecting the planet so that they could successfully invade it, there was no real reason for Kululu to help the planet. He had only done it before so he could invade. But he was no longer an invader.

 _The only human on this planet Kululu feels any actual sympathy for is me._ He doubted that was enough to get Kululu to work his butt off to save the planet though. _Now that his orders are to save the planet from Keron by finding the flyians before them to prevent a full scale war on their part as they tear our planet apart, does he really care?_ With or without the flyians Kululu was still jobless. So what reason did he have to protect the planet? He was exiled either way.

Saburo knew deep down that Kululu probably didn't care about the planet. He knew he wasn't looking for the flyians somewhere. He had probably ditched.

 _But I care about this planet._ Saburo felt his heart pumping, filled with determination. _This is my home. And to save it I've got to get Kululu on my side. I've got to find Kululu who's off hiding somewhere being useless and kick him into actually doing stuff._ He was confident that Kululu could find the flyians.

He just needed to use Kululu's genius for good. He needed to use Kululu for the planet.

"Saburo? Do you have any ideas of where Kululu could be?" Angol Mois had apparently been chattering and listing off her own ideas. She hadn't noticed that Saburo wasn't listening to her. Maybe she was used to others ignoring her as she rattled on.

Saburo put his hand to his chin and thought as Mois stirred him from his thoughts. He was certain that Kululu wasn't in trouble. He knew that the guy had just straight up ditched. _So it's gotta be someplace that Angol Mois wouldn't have checked out already and someplace Kululu would go to ditch work…_

Suddenly an idea came to him. "I think I have an idea." He frowned for a second. "There's this curry restaurant in alien street that Kululu likes-"

"I've checked out all the curry places that Kululu's shown me at alien street already." Angol Mois replied.

"This one's...In more of the bad neighborhood of alien street. He really likes it, but the best descriptive word to describe it would be ' _seedy'_. It's a bar and curry place. You can stay there for an extended amount of time as long as you have money because it's open 24/7." Saburo described.

Angol Mois frowned. "He's never told me about that place..."

"Of course he didn't. It's a tough place. You wouldn't like it and I assume Kululu's smart enough not to bring you to bars. However I am a delinquent so Kululu knew I'd be fine." Saburo pointed out.

"But...I'm older than you..." Angol Mois was slightly offended that she hadn't ever been told about this place but Saburo had.

Saburo ignored her. "If Kululu was ditching work he'd be there. So why don't we check it out?"

Angol Mois gave a reluctant nod still grumbling to herself questions on why she wasn't tough enough to go to a place with seeds.

Saburo just sighed. This was going to be a long trip.

* * *

They made it to the bar/curry place. Saburo pointed at the light up sign. That was really the only thing light about it. Everything else seemed so dark.

There was trash around the streets and various aliens glancing at them with glares. A few of them were sharpening knives.

"You better stay close to me, Mois. This place is dangerous." Saburo instructed, offering her a hand so she could hold it. The amount of criminals didn't bother him too much, he wasn't afraid and he could hold his own in a fight but he was a bit worried about Mois. _I should have let her stay behind at my home. I had forgotten how dangerous places like this were._

Mois did not take his hand. "I'll be fine. People like this are usually more scared of me than the other way around." She spoke cheerfully. She skipped over to the doors guarded by a large alien.

"Mois! That's the bouncer. You can't get in if you aren't old enough!" Saburo shouted.

Mois turned to him. "But you aren't old enough." She pointed out.

Saburo shed a tear. "He...He said white hair meant I was old. He didn't understand that this was platinum blonde...He didn't u-understand..." He just tried not to sniffle.

Mois politely nodded at the bouncer. "Hello! May I get in?"

The bouncer hulked over her and leaned down. He was more than five times her size but Mois didn't even bat an eyelash. "You're much too young."

"I'm two thousand." Mois pouted. "Isn't that old enough?"

"I doubt you're two thousand. Do you have ID that says that?" The bouncer asked.

"I….ID?" Mois asked confused. "...Nobody's ever asked me for an ID before. I just thought angolians didn't need ID's. They kinda need to get places without government officials getting in the way and crying about how their planet's going to get destroyed."  
"Every alien needs ID's, Miss." The bouncer corrected. "And I can not allow you in without an ID."

"You wouldn't even let the lord of terror in?" Angol Mois pouted. "What if I say pretty please?"

Saburo sighed. "Maybe you should wait out here….Just don't wonder off and I'll be out real fast-" Saburo tried to tell her.

"You're not the lord of terror- the lord of terror is terrifying and only cares about the screams of children and bloodshed and destruction. That's why they're called the lord of terror, duh. You're much too...Kind and innocent to be the lord of terror, miss. I apologize but, kid, you can't pretend to be something you're not." The bouncer told her.

Mois sighed and transformed into her angolian form. "I guess if you won't let me in I'll just have to bring the place down. You kinda brought this on yourself." She swung her lucifer spear and hit the building.

"MOIS! STOP! Kululu might be in there! Please don't bury Kululu in rubble!" Saburo shouted. Did this happen every time Mois went out?  
All of the criminals turned to Mois as the entire district seemed to shake. The bouncer's face turned pale when he realized that was in fact a lucifer spear.

"W-well..Umm...I w-was mistaken. You and your friend just go right in Miss Lord of Terror. And anything you want in there is on us. Just please don't kill all of us. Please. We don't want any screams of children here." The bouncer seemed to shrink down into a bow.

Angol Mois nodded. "And that's the way things should be. But thank you for being understanding." She put her spear away and floated up to pat the bouncer on the head.

Saburo just gulped and tried not to make eyesight with any criminals. Lucky for him they had all hid.

 _I guess that's what she meant when she said they were usually more afraid of her than the other way around..._ The lord of terror sure did have a lot of power. People sure knew rumors and legends of Mois. What the heck had she done? Saburo decided not to even guess.

He just quietly followed Mois inside looking much less tougher than her.

* * *

Kululu's bright yellow body was very easy to spot in one of the back corner's. He was all alone at his own table.

And just as Saburo had kind of had a suspicion he was completely drunk. He wasn't eating much curry there was just a huge pile of alcohol bottles on the ground by his side.

He was laying his head on the table as his hand rested on another glass shaking, and trying to serve himself up more.

"Kululu!" Mois had no subtleness and just rushed over to him. She took the glass out of his hand although Kululu put up some weak fight.

Saburo sighed. _It would have been better to go slow, to try to talk him out of drinking away his sorrows. But I guess we'll just make a big announcement that we're here._

It was really obvious to someone as observant as Saburo that what had happened was that Kululu had tried to drink away his depression and whatever feelings he felt towards being exiled and used as bait. Saburo had figured that might be the case.

"Are you okay? Did some flyian capture you and make you drink this much?" Angol Mois asked super concerned and getting fully the wrong idea. The premise that Kululu might have done this to himself didn't even occur to her.

Kululu weakly looked up a bit confused. "M-mois? W-what are you doing here? You're not suppsed to be here." He slurred a bit. "No more arson. No more." He said simply.

"What….Is he talking about?" Saburo asked

Mois just stared at him. "Umm...The last and first time I drank Kululu may or may not have been lit on fire." She gave a casual shrug.

"You lit him on fire?" Saburo asked in shock.

"No! No I don't think so!" Angol Mois waved her hand. "He just kinda...Burst into flames. It was weird. I mean I guess I might have? Who knows. It was either he lit himself on fire or else I did. Drinking is weird."

Saburo wanted to ask more but he just shook his head. He needed to focus on Kululu right now. He pat away a few sparks of flame on Kululu. "Kululu...We need to go. We need to start looking for the flyians."

"Yeah! We need to get you back home. You're...Really really drunk. I think you need to rest." Angol Mois agreed. She tried to help Kululu up or pick him up. Kululu did not move and just stubbornly stayed.

"Hey! He hasn't paid yet. He can't leave until he pays." A barkeep said.

"Oh? Really?" Angol Mois asked. She just stared at the barkeep.

The barkeep squeaked and backed off. They knew what was happening to their establishment if they bothered the lord of terror and her entourage.

Angol Mois turned her attention back to Kululu. "Come on, Kululu." She insisted, "We really need to get home. We have a lot to do, remember? Uncle wants us to-"

"I don't want to go." Kululu tried to speak clearer.

 _Here it is. Kululu doesn't want to help. And it'll be hard to convince him to act even slightly like a normal person when he's drunk._ Saburo rubbed his head and sighed. How could he stop whatever argument was about to happen? How could he make sure this situation didn't explode and Kululu helped them?

"What?" Angol Mois was confused why Kululu wouldn't want to go home.

"Things w-will bee fine." Kululu reached out for the glass that had already been taken from him and pretended to drink from nothing. "I'm not going to help the Keron army with anything."

"But-" Saburo tried to speak up.

"The pplatoon doesn't need me." Kululu stubbornly replied. "It's not my platoon." He reached up and tore off the spiral from his hat and threw it to the ground.

Saburo picked it up. "Kululu. You've got to go back to your lab. You've got to sober up. We can't really talk to you or negotiate with you about what to do when you're this drunk. You won't listen to us."

"I'm fine here. Just leave. I'm not going to listen to _his _ orders anymore. There's no point. I will never ever help that pitiful platoon—And I'm not going to stop drinking either! Ku, ku, ku. I'm here forever...Ku ku ku!"

Saburo frowned. _I've gotta think of some way to get him to go home...That way he can at least sober up..._ This would be complicated. Even with Kululu drunk this would still be a logic game and puzzle of trying to outsmart Kululu and convince him to leave.

 _Bang!_ Angol Mois avoided the complex logic game by knocking Kululu out with her lucifer spear.

Kululu stopped laughing and fell over. She picked him up.

"That...Was easy." Saburo frowned. "Is that really...Okay though?"

"Keronian heads are hard. He'll be fine." Mois nodded. "Being here isn't good for Kululu. I better take him home."

"But we need to convince him to help us about the flyians-" Saburo insisted.

"He's not helping while he's drunk. I'm sure he'll wake up from all this in the morning, he just has to heal a bit." Angol Mois smiled. "But right now he has to rest. We'll be going back home now." She tucked Kululu carefully under her arm like a little doll.

Saburo followed Mois out of the bar. _Should….Should I go with her? Back to the base so I can look after Kululu?_ He did have a part in this and he should be there for Kululu but he realized it would probably not do very much good.

Even if Kululu was annoyed by Mois sometimes she was a lot better with fixing things and support than him. He didn't know the first thing about making sure somebody rested up. Mois would probably be a lot stricter towards Kululu getting over what was probably a terrible hangover. That and he'd listen to her.

"Then...I'll visit in the morning." Saburo nodded briskly to her. "Don't let him out of your sight. And don't leave on any huge adventure without me. I'm part of your little team now, understand?"

Angol Mois smiled and nodded. "I understand! We'll be happy to see you in the morning! Although maybe move it to the afternoon. I doubt he'll be very well in the morning."

Saburo nodded and waved to her a good-bye.

* * *

Kululu slept most of the night. It wasn't a good sleep and in the morning he vomited a lot of his adventure in alcohol land.

Angol Mois was by his side at most every moment, patting his back, or helping him get water. He couldn't really tell her he was fine and could take care of himself because every time he tried to stand up he took a fall. It was very clear he was not fine, so she remained. He was much too stubborn to comment on it, but he knew he'd be in a lot more pain without her.

"So….Why were you drinking so much?" Angol Mois finally asked hopeful that most of the alcohol was finally out of his system. She wanted him to talk to her, figure out what was wrong.

"Bored. Ku." Kululu said simply. He was not going to talk about his problems.

Angol Mois continued trying to prod every now and then, but he just would not talk. He knew Saburo already suspected, and he knew why he had done such a thing, but there was no reason to state it out right.

He had given up. He had no more motives, no more ambitions or dreams. He just felt nothing, a deep depression. At least drinking had been sort of fun.

 _I shouldn't be that surprised about having no dreams. It's not like this is the first time I've felt nothing._ He thought to himself.

The military had given him something to dream about. Ambition. In his childhood he was just a weak, lonesome and probably ugly brat. He was constantly at the bottom of the pecking order, no friends no nothing by his side. Even his inventions had left him for others. Eventually he had gotten tired of that and had snapped. Luckily that had drawn the military's attention forward and they had acknowledged his genius.

He had impressed them, they had given him the position of Major at such a young age. He was famous. He wasn't loved but he was known. And with the fame that came from his genius dreams sprung too, ambitions.

He wanted to continue up in the military. He liked being at the top. He liked being superior to all.

But he had gotten much too big for his britches. He was an egotistical jerk and had eventually purposefully been a jerk to the three admirals of Keron- just for kicks and a good laugh of course. He was a jerk till the end after all. But they hadn't laughed about the situation, they had taken it much more seriously and he had been demoted all the way down to sergeant major.

That's when his time in the military became a lot worse. He wasn't at the top any longer. Some people even mocked him.

 _I wanted it back. I wanted to rise in the ranks again. I needed to complete the invasion of Pekopon to get it back. I...I was obsessed with it in a way. Being at the top again._ He hadn't wanted to be a sergeant major forever.

But being a sergeant major was a lot better than being nothing. Because deep in Kululu's heart Kululu knew that the military and his rank was all he had. Those were his achievements. And it was the only thing he could do in his life.

He was a Keron soldier through and through. Without being a keron soldier he was just that lonesome kid who was the bottom of the pecking order. Or a pathetic jerk that everybody thought was annoying, there was nothing behind him.

 _I was confident I could rise in the ranks again. That Keron needed me because of my genius. That I could still be a jerk for as long as I wanted because you didn't need to be nice to get farther in life. You just needed to be talented._ That insight was still true. You just needed to be talented to get ahead in life. However being a super genius was no real talent. They were a dime a dozen on Keron. In constant competition to try to be noticed by the Keron forces, to try to use their genius to get ahead. Keron was really drowning in super genius's. They were dull and boring now.

Without something super impressive as a talent in addition to that, Kululu was nothing. Those were the facts.

Kululu finally stood up on his own and wobbled over to his computer. "You know you can go now. I'm fine. Ku, ku, ku." He spoke up. He didn't need to be thinking about the unnecessary. That would just get him drunk again.

"You're clearly not fine-. Kululu I'm here to help. We're a team, remember?" Angol Mois reminded.

"We're a team only because Keroro randomly decided we were. It wasn't either of our choices." Kululu reminded. "And if you're staying to help just because you need me to find those flyians you're wasting your time."

Angol Mois didn't speak up about the flies. She knew they eventually did need to get to talking about them, but first Kululu needed to heal. "I'm not wasting my time. Helping a friend isn't wasting time."

Kululu laughed. "Ku, ku, ku!" He wiped a tear from his eye. _Helping a friend. Sure. I believe that. She's here because Keroro told her to be._ "I can't help find the flyians." He finally said after he stopped laughing.

Angol Mois frowned. "Sure you can. You're brilliant Kululu! You've got all sorts of technology-"

"Keronian technology. If Keronian technology couldn't find the flies to began with than my tech isn't going to do any good." Kululu pointed out. "Face it. Technology is worthless against those things."

"So...You're going to have to use your brain...Old school?" Angol Mois was confused by what he was saying.

Kululu sighed deeply and rubbed his head in annoyance. She wasn't getting what he was hinting at. "If there's no technology involved there's no need for a tech team. Ku, ku, ku." He stated firmly. "You don't have to work with me. And I'm not going to help find them. There's nothing really I can offer in this pointless venture. I'm one keronian. Keron is thousands upon thousands. They'll have better luck." He turned around waiting for Angol Mois to either run off in glee that she could rejoin her Uncle or yell at him for not following Keroro's orders.

Instead she bent down to be more at his height. She was quiet for a moment. Kululu hated when she was quiet and just staring at him and thinking. He could never figure out what she was thinking but it probably wasn't anything good.

"It's all right, Kululu. We don't have to go right away." She reassured. She could tell Kululu seemed angry at everything, the world, her, himself, literally everything. But he also seemed quite depressed. There was something very apparent by his words though. _He doesn't believe in himself._ "I believe in you. It doesn't matter that Keron's tech couldn't find them. I know you can."

Kululu hissed and bit his thumb. Of course she'd say some dumb crap about believing in him. _I don't want anyone falsely believing in me right now though!_ He didn't want her to say that. He didn't know how to feel about it. It made him feel like he was being pushed into having to try. And trying wasn't something he ever wanted to do again. He'd just fail. Like he had with the military.

He didn't respond. Luckily he didn't have to. At that very moment the teeth door of Kululu's lab opened. Saburo cheerily entered with a wave.

 _I've got to keep the mood upbeat. Gotta convince Kululu to help us search for the flyians._ Saburo thought to himself. He dropped a pack on the ground. "I'm all packed!" He announced.

Kululu didn't care enough to ask 'for what?' so Saburo answered the question that was never asked.

"To go find the flyians at my school. I'm assuming you intend to go looking for the flies there first." Saburo reminded. He needed to get Kululu back on track to find the flyians.

Angol Mois glanced at the over packed pack with some confusion and interest. There looked to be some smoke bombs and things developed for stealth. _Pekoponian schools are sure weird._

"I told you last night. I'm not going." Kululu crossed his arms. "Ku. I don't really care about finding the flyians. I'm no longer a soldier or a member of the Keroro Platoon. I don't have to follow Keroro's orders. Go find the flyians on your own. Because I sure as hell am not helping." Kululu glared.

Saburo frowned. He expected Kululu to say that but he didn't expect him to be so firm in his stance. He stepped forward. He needed to speak seriously. No more stepping around the subject. "Kululu, everyone will die!" Saburo spoke with desperation.

"Cry me a river. I don't care." Kululu shrugged.

"If you don't help, everyone on this planet will die. Including me! I live here." Saburo didn't pause for very long, he could see that Kululu was about to speak and he didn't want to give him the chance. "You may be a complete jerk, but I would think that you have enough power and decency to pull yourself together from your slump for my sake." Saburo glared at him. His gaze was cold and there was an underlining message to his words. ' _I really will die if you don't focus on what's important. And I don't know if I want a friend who's just going to let me and my people die.'_

There was a long silence as Saburo just glared and waiting for Kululu to make a decision.

Kululu finally let out a long sigh as he broke Saburo's gaze and looked at his feet. "Fine. I'll do what Keroro ordered me to do." He finally agreed knowing he didn't really want to abandon Saburo to die. "But only because I'm bored and have nothing better to do. Ku." Kululu lied.

Saburo smiled. That was enough for him.

"After this though when I'm exiled I'll just sit here under the Hinata house. I'm returning here and I want to be alone when that happens. Got it? I don't want you two bothering me about helping any more. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu insisted.

 _Ah. He wants to be alone because he's still in his slump. He's isolating himself._ Saburo couldn't really do anything about that slump. He had to be focusing on other things. Like saving the planet. He just nodded a bit. "So… To the school?"  
"No. I don't want to head to your dumb school." Kululu growled.

Saburo brushed some beads of sweat off his forehead. "Me neither." He felt relieved.

"Going to your school is exactly what Keron wants from me. It was where they thought the flyians might originally be after all. That's where they sent me." Kululu grated his teeth. "I'll never listen to Keron again. If they can't trust me I can't trust them. It's simple. Ku."

"Then where do you think those bug aliens are?" Angol Mois finally asked.

Kululu thought for a moment. "I want to go to the rainforest. The big one in the South American continent should do. The deeper parts might be where the flyians are hiding. After all Haru Hinata found them on his search for the occult and cryptids. There are a lot of cryptids in that area. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu used his brain.

Angol Mois clapped about to congratulate him on his reasoning, but then she frowned. "But...Wait. Doesn't the rainforest have no places to really buy parts to build technology? Aren't there not very many resources to build the sort of machines that you're accustomed to being around? Would...It really be a good location for you to go to?"

The rainforest seemed to have a lot of things that were against Kululu. The lack of technology was by far the largest, along with the fact that he wasn't a very outdoors-y survivalist. It was a dangerous place, maybe not for someone like Giroro, but Kululu? Definitely a bad place.

"Exactly." Kululu smiled. "It doesn't have technology. Because it's not like we'll need technology to find those flyians. It didn't help Keron any and it clearly didn't help me not get fired."

With horror Saburo and Mois both realized that Kululu was purposefully choosing the worst location for himself. And both of them knew he wouldn't listen if they said it was a bad idea. Kululu always listened to his own pieces of advice over others. He was smarter than everyone else. So clearly his ego would not let him listen to anyone else.

So Saburo just followed Kululu's lead as he got a vehicle ready so they could be off. The more they put off going the more time it would take to find the flies after all.

So they just blasted off.

* * *

It didn't take them very long to get set up in the rainforest. Once they found a clearing to land on, Kululu dissembled said hovercraft and just pointed inward to the forest.

"Ummm...We just wildly go inside the forest?" Saburo asked. It was warm and humid but he felt a little chilly by just how stupid and dangerous that sounded.

"Which of us is the one trained as a soldier?" Kululu reminded. The word soldier was spat out bitterly.

"You. But do you have any survival skills whatsoever? I always thought Giroro and Dororo were the survivalists of your group. Who were good in wild and plant like areas like these." Saburo pointed out.

Kululu just walked on forward towards a bunch of poisonous plants. "Well you'd be right. I don't have the best endurance." Kululu reached towards a plant that had some sort of bug on it to look closer.

"Careful! That's poisonous!" _Wait. He knows that. He's Kululu. Does he just not care?_ Saburo realized.

He obviously didn't as he tried yet again to swat the bug. Mois darted forward and moved Kululu's hand away.

He looked annoyed but sighed. _What are they idiots? We'll never find the flyians if we don't observe everything._ Being a super genius was about observing and gaining more knowledge. But perhaps Saburo and Mois were listening to their own sense of genius and 'common sense', as he called it. But a rash would be nothing compared to actually finishing the mission. That and the plant was only truly poisonous if ingested. He wasn't Tamama. He wasn't just going to lick it. Gross.

Still, it looked like they were needlessly concerned for him. He hated that fake concern. It was just like the lies Keron had told him giving him false dreams.

He picked up his things. "Fine. Let's look somewhere else. Deeper into this death forest! Ku, ku, ku."

That's when Saburo saw what he was carrying along with his supplies. It was a file labeled 'Sergeant _Major Kululu_ _'_

Saburo knew it was what the keronians had given Kululu. But why was Kululu carrying it around? It was just a reminder of his failures. Unless that was what he wanted to do.

Saburo knew that the story and some unfortunate emotions might unfurl themselves soon enough.

* * *

It was very apparent as the group continued on throughout the forest, just trekking along that Kululu was not in his right mind. Although sober now, he constantly seemed to get sidetracked by whatever seemed most dangerous and he had to investigate it. Something that would have no doubt always blown up in his face and caused bodily harm if Mois and Saburo weren't there to stop it. Saburo mostly took out whatever danger and Mois tried to distract.

 _I mean...I knew he liked getting hurt in a weird sort of negative attention way. It's the only way he knows how to get anyone to pay attention to him, but this is beyond weird and dangerous. This is not a sustainable trend._ Kululu could die going on like that. Saburo knew this. But whenever he tried to bring up Kululu's possible problems Kululu just rushed off to investigate the next thing, not really wanting to socialize.

"Have you noticed what's in his hands?" Angol Mois asked Saburo quietly as Kululu went off.

Saburo nodded. It was the file. He hadn't stopped clutching it since they got here. In fact now that he thought about it, Kululu had always been with it. At the bar, in his lab, that file wasn't far from Kululu. "It doesn't seem healthy. But...Nothing about Kululu ever was healthy." Saburo pointed out.

"We should probably separate him from it." Angol Mois frowned after a moment.

"What? You want me to literally tear it from his hands?" Saburo asked. Kululu was depressed, but he wasn't that depressed to just lie down as someone tried to take something from him. He'd take it as an insult and rise above the occasion to be a huge jerk and get his revenge. And Saburo didn't want any of Kululu's revenge.

"No! Maybe be more subtle about it? Like trick him. Kululu likes games of trickery. If he lost the file that way I'm sure he'd be respectful." Angol Mois had much too high of standards she was holding Kululu too.

Saburo just frowned.

Mois sighed. "Here. Let me try." She decided to prepare a demonstration. While Kululu was distracted she wandered over to him.

"Guess who?" She put her hands over his eyes, smiling, hoping that he'd leap up in surprise and drop his file.

 _She's dead. I don't think Kululu would even let me play the 'guess who' game with him._ Saburo paled.

Instead Kululu sighed. "I told you, Mois I always know it's you. I'm not sure what the point of this game is." He moved one of his hand's up to pry Mois's hands off his eyes so he could see and actually try to look for the flyians.

In that quick second Angol Mois grabbed the file out of his hands.

Kululu's eyes widened as she put it the one place he couldn't get- above him because he was much too short. She just held it above his height.

"Y-you...You took it! Give it back!" Kululu demanded. He didn't sound the least bit amused. Instead he sounded frightened and horrified.

Angol Mois shook her head. "This thing isn't very important, is it? I think it should go."

"This isn't a game, Mois. Give it back!" Kululu demanded yet again, trying to jump up and down.

 _This...Is amusing in a way. Just the way Mois's attitude is and her innocence makes it look like she really is treating this as a game making the situation less threatening and serious. She can get away with these things because of that._ Saburo realized.

"Hmm...A game. A game, huh...If it was a game, you'd have to trade something for it." Mois realized. "Or else it would be mine."

Kululu thought. "Fine. What do you want?"

"Uhh...To get rid of this?" Angol Mois suggested holding the file.

"That isn't your choice. It's my choice what happens to it. That's my file with information specifically about me that I want back. It should be my choice." Kululu frowned. "Now tell me something I can do. I am willing to give you something in return for it, as long as I get it back."

Angol Mois frowned. She seemed to be wavering in stealing the file. Kululu was right, it should be his choice. "...Okay."  
 _Darn it. She changes her mind much too quickly to take things. Gives in easily._ Angol Mois was so close! Saburo just felt disappointed.

Angol Mois suggested what she wanted to Kululu too quietly for Saburo to hear. He saw Kululu make a weird expression one he hadn't quite seen before as he answered, "Saburo's right there!" and Mois sighed and gave him back the file.

Saburo just frowned. They had lost the battle.

In the following hours that followed Saburo and Mois could not get Kululu to willingly part with the file at all and he continued to carry it with him. He continued his dangerous endeavors as well.

Saburo wondered just how long Kululu would truly live in this rainforest. It was plain to see if Saburo wasn't there or Mois that Kululu would have fallen into some sort of peril and been dead.

* * *

"So what are you looking for?" Saburo finally asked as they continued to walk and walk. He was getting tired. Kululu was silently investigating everything he could find and not really giving any clues to Saburo what the plan was.

Just normal Kululu stuff.

"This sort of place is ripe with ancient texts from dead civilizations. Ku, ku, ku. Those pekoponians really do a number on each other. I'm looking for some sort of stone slab or something with text that might have some clues on the flyians, since that was how Haru discovered them in the first place." Kululu finally replied.

Saburo nodded. "I'll help!" He offered. "And Mois will help look too!"

Kululu didn't reply back, he instead went back to looking around. Eventually the three came across an area that was tougher to cross. It had a raging river ending the hunt until a reliable crossing method was found.

Saburo liked to look at the river instead of the ground. He just kind of listened to the sound of water hitting sharp jagged rocks.

"Found it! Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu sounded like he actually felt some pride in his work. He desperately rolled a stone slab out next to a tree. "This has some sort of ancient text that I can translate about them. I can tell because those idiots drew a fly creature on this slab of rock."

"Really?" Saburo spun around all too fast. He didn't know where the slab of rock was though and that it was right next to him. He accidentally spun too fast and knocked it aside. Before anyone could do anything their one lead was knocked into the raging river.

Saburo's jaw dropped open. _Just my luck!_ He felt terrible. He just hoped it sunk instead of being washed away. He awkwardly glanced at Kululu. _He must be furious._

Oddly enough though Kululu didn't look mad. He didn't even look like he was going to make fun of Saburo for getting caught in how nature looked instead of the mission. Instead Kululu looked annoyed.

Kululu sighed. "That was our one lead..." There was a moment of silence. "Oh well." He recovered easily. "It's not like I could find a lead anyway. Ku, ku, ku. Logically speaking Keron's been looking for these flyians for ages. I'm way less prepared than Keron." His words were hallow.

Angol Mois frowned deeply at Kululu's words. She glanced at Saburo worriedly. "W-we could make some sort of pulley system to retrieve it." She suggested. "It probably isn't getting far. And you're really good at making things. There's a ton of things here that could make a simple system like that. It's not gone yet!" Her voice was filled with cheer.

Kululu just looked at her like he didn't believe her.

 _He's got to do something successful. It's becoming more and more apparent that his self-esteem has been damaged in this whole Keron issue. If he made something I'm sure he'd feel better immediately._ Angol Mois thought.

"Don't say that Keron would be doing so much better!" If there was one thing everybody knew Angol Mois was good at it was boosting up people's egos unnecessarily. She was very good at compliments. She felt proud of her compliment abilities. And to boost up Kululu's self-esteem she would happily compliment him. "You'll definitely be the one to find the flyians!"

"Oh? And why are you so confident about that?" Kululu asked unsure why Angol Mois was shouting so overly enthusiastically at him like a cheer squad.

"Well, because you're the great sergeant major Kululu, right?" Angol Mois smiled. "You're my friend and you're a super genius-"

It was that word that made Kululu's glasses crack a bit. _Super genius…._ _What an easy word to say. Is that supposed to be something important?_ He just gave a stiff nod. "I'll retrieve the slab. After all you're right. I can do it. I have technology. Like my flashlight glasses." Then, suddenly he plunged himself in the warm rainforest river water jumping in after the slab.

"KULULU!" Angol Mois screamed.

"Did...Did he just jump in after the stone slab…? But...Nobody can lift a giant rock and swim up with it. Even if he does have flashlight glasses that let him see in the dark parts of the water..." Saburo was in shock.

"That's not the problem! That river is dangerous! There's sharp rocks and it's got a strong current and he's not a good swimmer-" Angol Mois was panicking.

Saburo hit his head with his hand. "And in this area there are deadly leeches! He's going to die!" He yelled. He was probably the only one knowing about the leeches since he was a human.

With those leeches he couldn't just jump after Kululu. He tried to figure out what to do. Tried to use some of his brain as Kululu probably drowned. "He's moving-" He realized quickly seeing as Mois predicted that Kululu and the slab of stone were being swept up in the current.

The stone slab and Kululu moved faster and faster. Kululu didn't look like he was breathing, he must have had fluid in his lungs or been knocked out by being pushed against a rock. They moved closer and closer towards a giant waterfall that no doubt had jagged rocks at the bottom.

Saburo stopped himself from jumping in after him. _No point in both of us dying. That wouldn't help it would hinder. Then Mois would have to solve the problem on her own. Think, Saburo, think! What to do..._ He twirled his pen wondering if he could draw a life preserver.

Angol Mois acted faster than Saburo. She quickly transformed into her other form and rushed after Kululu. Flying low but not in the water she dove down quickly just as Kululu dropped off the cliff towards his demise.

She swept forward and caught him in her arms letting the slab of stone fall and crack at the bottom in favor of Kululu's life.

She quickly flew back to Saburo holding Kululu tenderly in her arms. Both of them were fairly wet but Saburo could tell that Angol Mois's face was still distraught with worry. "Do CPR." She begged.

"Umm...I can't." Saburo replied. "Do you know how many anime I've watched where CPR is part of the big romantic moment with a lot of tension? Anime's just made it into too much like kissing and I don't really want to kiss Kululu...I think it would make more sense if you did it, he'd probably be more thankful-"

Angol Mois slapped Saburo. "Do you know how many dumb anime tropes Uncle has made me listen to and sit through? The CPR thing is one of the biggest and stupidest misconceptions and I'm not letting Kululu die for anime." She glared. "And I can't do it. That's why I'm asking you. I don't know how to do correct CPR. I only know how to bang on chests to an extreme level. You know, with my lucifer spear. 99% chance he'd die from that method!"

Saburo paled. She was right. It was just like Angol Mois to think a lucifer spear to the chest was CPR. He took Kululu in his arms and ignored the leeches covering his body and quickly pried open his mouth to breathe into him. He pressed on his chest over and over again until Kululu finally awoke and coughed up a bunch of water.

"Ack, ack!" Kululu coughed, waking up. His life was finally saved.

Mois sighed in relief along with Saburo. "You're alive!" She smiled.

"Where's the stone slab?" Kululu asked ignoring her happiness at his life.

"It dropped to the ground and broke. I didn't have enough time to save both of you." Angol Mois replied, relief still in her eyes. Her eyes were watering and she looked like she really just wanted to hug Kululu to make sure he was okay.

"You should have saved it. After all I only managed to read half of it before I lost consciousness." Kululu didn't look thankful at what Mois had done. Instead he glared, disinterested in the value of his life. "And you-" He glanced over at Saburo. "You gave me CPR?"

"Yeaaaahh..." Saburo knew Kululu was going to be a jerk about this.

"Your mouth is worse than a leech's. Yuck. Ku, ku, ku. Maybe I didn't want my life saved at the cost of smelling your bad breath." Kululu pulled a leech off his elbow. "Should have just let me die if living meant touching your mouth."

That was a normal enough line for Kululu, still there was the underlining knowledge that there was something more harmful to it. Or at least Saburo felt there was.

"You're welcome." Saburo sighed sarcastically.

Angol Mois sat down now that Kululu was fine. She waited for a few seconds as he pulled some leeches off himself. "Don't do that again, Kululu! Saburo and I were really worried about you. If you died, I'd be really sad." She sounded really angry, like she was scolding him.

 _Oh. She's trying to get him to fight back a little against how willless he is to try or live, right now._ Saburo realized.

Well, if it was time to knock some sense into Kululu and make him fight against whatever was in the file, and whatever feelings he was feeling, he'd help.

"It's no big deal." Kululu said casually. "Not like I'll amount to much anyway. I'm officially fired. Exiled on a planet I hate." He sounded like he pitied himself a lot right now. That or he just really did not like Pekopon. "If I had to be sent on a fake invasion why couldn't I be sent to a curry planet?" He moaned. This was pure self pity.

Saburo grabbed the soggy file laying on the ground. Kululu had taken it into the water and hadn't let it go. It was wet but still readable.

"Hey!" Kululu yelled. Kululu snapped out of self pity to glare at Saburo.

Saburo opened it. It was time to expose Kululu's secrets. To read the forbidden file out loud.

"No more running from this. Time to confront it and get over it. It's time to see what was really in this thing that's bumming you out so much." Saburo said. And he started to read.

" **Sergeant Major Kululu** **is one of the most important members of the fake invasion of Pekopon. He is one of our top picks and first chosen of the bait for the flyians. Why? Because we can't figure out how else to get rid of this jerk."**

Saburo frowned. It wasn't that the words on Kululu's file were making him sad. It was just….Very expected. It kinda sounded like whatever had happened Kululu had actually brought on himself and now he was bummed out about it.

" **This guy literally has no redeeming qualities. Nothing. He's absolutely useless. He's not strong. He doesn't listen, he's not good with people, he's butt ugly. Terrifying. The only personality trait he has besides being a jerk and creepy is being a super genius. Super genius is literally the only quality that he has that's good about him. He's somehow managed to ride his way into success from that one quality which has at least helped other soldiers become inspired, but...We don't need him. Super geniuses are a dime a dozen. You can find them all over the place and others are much smarter than him and work harder than him. Other keronians could accomplish what he does easily. So his one redeeming quality has become his downfall."** Saburo read.

Saburo knew all this stuff was a very sensitive subject to Kululu. No wonder his self esteem was hurt. But there was still more in the file.

" **He picks fights with superior officers trying to be a jerk and blackmail them. In fact he picks fights with everyone even officers below him or in his own department. He sabotages his own missions purposefully just for a laugh. This guy will never amount to anything ever. He's just too much of a jerk and much too dislikable.**

 **Even if he made new choices and tried to be likable we wouldn't want him back. Who would want to be around this jerk? Nobody wants him. There are no more third, fourth, or even fifth chances for sergeant Major Kululu.**

 **We literally partied when he was chosen to go to Pekopon. Good-bye jerk face!"**

Saburo didn't know whether to continue staring at the document when he closed it or say something.

"So...You know..." Kululu grit his teeth, having just listened in horror as Saburo read aloud. "You know how I have no real chance of proving myself to Keron again. That they'll never allow me back home. I'm dead to them. They never wanted me. Even if I find the flyians there's nothing I get out of it." What a selfish motive.

Saburo was speechless still not knowing what to say. Sure, he felt a little bad, but not actually that much considering it was his friend being mocked in a large document. _I mean compared to what was in the rest of his platoon mate's folders his was by far probably the most justified. He brought it on himself. This can't be a surprise to him, can it be? It turns out that when you're a jerk to people, they don't like that?_ He couldn't fathom how Kululu couldn't understand that.

He had brought it on himself, but Kululu still wasn't happy about it. Sure there were other reasons he was chosen, but it was mostly his own fault. And he was probably blaming everyone including himself. He just felt hurt that he had no chance of a future as part of Keron anymore. Saburo didn't know how important it had been to him.

"It's all right. I mean nothing. I meant nothing to them." Kululu corrected, trying to stand up, squishing the last leech. His voice was mostly level with drops of anger in it, as if trying to not sound like it was too much of a big deal to him. "I think I always knew deep down. I was just surprised that I could never be a Major again like I wanted. I thought sergeant Major at least meant _something._ " He looked angry. "However it turns out my gifts of intellect meant nothing in the end. I'm just a tool to find some flies." He thought for a moment. "Ku, ku, ku!" He laughed as if he wasn't hurt. He just laughed and laughed. "Maybe I'll find the flies and eat them myself and become super strong. That would teach Keron a lesson if I didn't hand them over. Ku, ku, ku!" He laughed at his own joke.

Saburo paled and sweated. _He doesn't really have any right to joke with the planet's life on the line just because he got his comeuppance._ "You probably shouldn't joke about that. Keron would ravage Earth looking for those flies if you did that."Saburo just didn't know what to do about Kululu's mood. Sure it was foul and Kululu was clearly upset, but despite being his friend Saburo knew for a fact Kululu deserved it. He didn't know if or how to help Kululu.

Mois however, was a lot more sensitive to the issues seeing it as less of an injured ego and more of deep running self-esteem issues. She met Kululu's eyes and tried to give him a sympathetic smile. "You matter to me." She said simply. "You matter to me a lot more than I care about all of Keron."

Kululu frowned in clear irritation. It was very apparent that her words of kindness weren't helping him at all. "I don't really want your pity. Ku. It's disgusting."

"It's not pity-" Angol Mois tried to explain.

"You care a lot more about Keroro than me. And he's basically the biggest poster child of Keron ever. Heck, the dude's parents were so uncreative they named him after the planet!" Kululu mostly insulted Keroro.

Angol Mois frowned deeply, wanting to stand up for Keroro but Kululu didn't give her a chance to speak.

"Anyway Mois, you and I are just friends." Kululu continued as if that was explanation enough that she was lying.

Angol Mois crossed her arms. "So? Friendship isn't a bad thing Kululu! It still means something. It backs up my point even more that I care about you and that you aren't as expendable as you think you are."

Kululu scoffed. He clearly wasn't buying any of it. Finally he stopped looking down at her and her sappy words of friendship to glare at her. He looked angry. "I told you for the last time...I don't want your pity about not being expendable or something. It doesn't bother me at all what's in that file." He lied. "Your pity and pretend kindness isn't helping me in the least bit. For the last time I don't want any of it. So get out of my life and get lost."

Mois looked startled that he was yelling at her. She looked at Saburo as if wondering why she was getting the blunt of Kululu's anger.

 _That's the way Kululu is. He doesn't really believe honest affection or positive attention and instead lashes out about it. When he's angry the anger usually is pushed onto other people._ It wasn't a very good thing to do. Saburo took a step forward wondering if he should get in between Mois and Kululu before things got any more intense.

He doubted Kululu would hurt Mois, and he certainly wasn't insulting her, he was just saying that he didn't believe her, but Saburo still had this bad feeling that this was going to get more serious. He didn't know what was going on but for some reason he felt like he was a tiny child in the middle of two adults arguing.

"I...I'm not g-going to 'get lost' as you, say, Kululu. I'm here to stay. Remember? I'm part of the tech team. And Uncle assigned me to work with you to find the flyians so I'll stay-" Angol Mois tried to use logic to appease Kululu that she was here to stay. However the mention of Keroro seemed to backfire and make him angrier.

"Always doing what your beloved Keroro orders, huh? Ku, ku, ku. Not much of a will or thoughts on your own." Kululu mocked, "Well let me help you decide what to do since you're always just so willing to follow others commands! Go back to your beloved Uncle! I don't need you here. I don't want you here." His voice softened a little for a moment, strained. "We're in the middle of a rainforest, there's no need for a communications officer here." Kululu pointed out as if to remind her that she could use that as an explanation for Keroro when he asked her why she wasn't with Kululu. "If you love Keroro oh so much like you keep saying you do you should be off helping him like you want." His anger rose again. "Four months without seeing Keroro would be hell for you. So leave!" Kululu swished his hands as if to motion for her to go. His voice had risen to the point of yelling.

"I won't!" Angol Mois refused. "I don't want to leave you alone. You're obviously unwell-"

 _Oh so I'm not here?_ Saburo watched slightly amused. He leaned against a tree as Angol Mois and Kululu continued arguing.

He was starting to get a little more used to it instead of just shocked by them yelling at each other, Angol Mois trying to get it through Kululu's thick skull that she was his friend and not pitying him, and Kululu trying to get her to leave because he didn't want her pitying him or anything remotely close to positive attention and reassurance.

Their whole argument seemed dumb and stupid but Saburo had enough faith in Mois being stubborn towards her friendships that she wouldn't listen to a word that Kululu was saying. _From what I've heard from the Keroro platoon Angol Mois usually beats Kululu in the end and wins whatever discussion or argument their having._

He didn't listen very intently only catching every other word. More and more the argument drifted away from the subject of pitying Kululu and into Keroro territory, the one subject that was sensitive to Angol Mois.

Saburo wondered for a moment if Kululu was even still mad about the file or bothered by it, or if his anger had now spread to a completely different thing that was stressing him out and it was now exhibiting itself as insults towards Keroro.

Finally Saburo heard Kululu speak, in an odd tone like he had given up while being mad at Mois instead of just directing the anger he had at himself at Mois. "You can't have it both ways, Mois." He said finally. "I'm too tired right now to give you the attention that you're so desperately yearning for from Keroro." He paused. "You can't have it both ways. I can't be his replacement while you're working with me. I'm tired of being his replacement."

"I'm not..." Angol Mois started fumbling. "There's no replacing going on-" Her voice made it sound like she wasn't so sure.

Kululu just sighed. "When I say I don't want you anywhere near me, I mean it. It has nothing to do with false anger at you. I just don't have the energy to deal with you right now." Kululu spoke honestly. "So I'm going to send you back to Keroro." There was no anger in his voice anymore, just a tone of sadness and like he was doing the right thing.

Angol Mois's eyes widened. "Uncle sent me here to help."

"I know. But you don't have to be here. I'm sending you back." Kululu told her, as if he expected her to thank him for being so generous with her life. He waited for a thank you, or something. Perhaps what he really wanted was recognition and appreciation since Keron was clearly never going to give it. He just didn't know how to take compliments at all especially when he himself was doubting they were truthful.

Instead Angol Mois's brows furrowed and she glared. She pouted. "Does...Does nobody ever care what I want to do? Uncle decides where I go, and now you do too!" She looked insulted.

"Not like you would have chosen to come here on your own." Kululu shrugged. "Go back to Keroro." He repeated.

"Neither of you want me around. Both of you are sending me somewhere else." Angol Mois put her foot down, literally. She stomped. "Well I'm having none of it."

She flew straight up into the air, looking very very insulted. "I'll find those flyians on my own since neither of you want my help. It's a big forest. Well compared to pekoponian forests. I'll prove myself to not just Uncle but you. See ya!" And she flew away.

Kululu just stared at the spot in the air that Mois had previously occupied. "I...I...I didn't expect her to get mad." He looked at Saburo like yelling at Mois and her becoming insulted had never ever occurred to him.

"Well she did." Saburo replied, frowning. He should have intervened sooner.

"I...I kinda thought...I don't know..." Kululu looked at the ground.

"You thought that even though you told her very explicitly to go to Keroro that she'd somehow convince you that she was going to stay?" Saburo asked. That didn't make a lot of sense. But Kululu's feelings of fear towards Mois never really did.

Kululu looked a little sad that she had left anyway.

"I didn't think that." Kululu denied. "It's just...Mois usually sees past any words. She's surprisingly good at reading people besides Tamama, I mean. She's...What's the word? Compassionate? Uhhh it's good with emotions. You know, what I lack." Kululu replied.

"Empathy. It's empathy, Kululu." Saburo told him.

"OH! Yeah, that weird word." Kululu brightened up remembering the word and snapping his fingers. He then deflated again realizing that he had in fact expected too much empathy when he did not deserve it.

 _So he thought she'd see through him and somehow figure out how to get through him. He was just bouncing his own self-doubts off of her instead of talking to himself or letting it fester. But the Keroro stuff in specific is super sensitive to Mois._ Saburo felt a pang of sympathy that Kululu had trusted Mois enough to try to trust her with his self doubts, but yet again he had brought it on himself by making those self doubts into more of an argument directed at her.

"I never expected Mois to stand up for herself too." Saburo agreed. "But it's nice to see. I guess she's growing?"

"I didn't think I was putting her in a position like that..." Kululu stopped himself from arguing. He knew he had messed up.

Saburo was right. Mois had finally stood up for herself, but now she was just gone, off on her own.

* * *

Saburo stuck by Kululu as Kululu continued trying to look for the flyians. He didn't put himself in as much danger anymore no longer going after every poisonous or venomous creature. Angol Mois and Saburo's worry after the river must have gotten to him.

Instead he tried to write in the sand the half of the text on the stone slab he had read, or tried to track anything that seemed out of place in the fauna of the rainforest, saying that he read that the flies granted their hosts more power than average creatures, referencing Haru taking out the entire platoon.

Saburo wanted to support Kululu, but he still wasn't sure what to do. Kululu was moping even more than usual sometime having long bouts of pure silence- not even having his token laugh.

He seemed to just be thinking to himself, still clinging to the file that Saburo had handed back to him.

 _It's a good thing I'm smart enough not to mention Angol Mois around him._ Saburo sighed as he watched Kululu just sit and look off into the distance. He wasn't sure what he was looking at but he knew Kululu was probably thinking about how yet again he had brought another bad situation on himself.

First he'd lost Keron because he was a jerk, then he had gotten Mois to leave willingly to look for some alien creature on her own because yet again he was a complete jerk. He really had some problems. If Kululu could just learn when was an appropriate time to be a jerk and when wasn't his problems would be gone.

Saburo was really the only one sticking by him. Perhaps it was because at times like this he didn't need to exchange words with Kululu and he never padded Kululu's feelings if he believed Kululu was in the wrong.

He knew Kululu had brought it on himself, so he wouldn't offer much sympathy. Kululu appreciated that because he wasn't getting anything that he could label as false pity. He wasn't getting anything at all in fact.

Still he knew Kululu was moping and deeply sad. It was very clear from how he tucked himself into a little ball during resting periods and just laid there.

 _Should I say something?_ Saburo wondered. Was it time to talk about Kululu's 'feelings'? It was probably best to not mention his and Mois's fight after all. Kululu probably didn't want any reminders. _It was pretty clear at the end of it too it wasn't **just** about Kululu's anger towards being exiled and himself. There was something else going on that he was having some problems with. Some sort of stress that didn't have anything to do with all of that, that just exploded. _He didn't know what that something else was and something told him it wasn't really his business to ask. He wanted to know though.

He didn't ask.

* * *

Kululu didn't care about anything. He didn't act like he wanted to speak to anyone, instead just writing whatever theories he had about where the flyians could be in a little notebook.

"I've got to put my finds in a journal to look back on since that stone slab is gone with information." Kululu explained simply once Saburo asked. He didn't look like he was very thankful to be with Saburo or be doing anything.

Still he did write. All he did was journal and observe now.

A few weeks passed by of the continued silence. They managed to fair decently in the wilderness thanks to Saburo's magic pen. He could at least make supplies. He could make a shelter.

 _Drawing a fishing pole, a trap to catch food, anything really helps out here. Without this pen we'd be in a lot more trouble._ Saburo knew that much. It wasn't like he had done survivalist training.

Still every night when he set up camp he felt this odd feeling. It felt like he was being watched by something, hunted.

He was very good at identifying the feeling. That was how he met Kululu after all, he had managed to figure out that an alien was around just from the pure feeling of being watched.

As he set up a tent, he quickly looked around. He heard some sort of scurrying in the large vines above him. Just the smallest amount of scurrying.

Whatever was watching them had noticed him glancing around. _This aura...This feeling. It's not a good one. Something has killer intentions towards us. Something's hunting us._

"Kululu." Saburo gestured for Kululu to come closer.

Kululu walked closer.

"I think something's following us." Saburo whispered. "I feel like we're being hunted. We're in danger, we should continue searching somewhere else, that's not the forest, since I don't have that much ink left, or running."

Kululu didn't look as surprised as Saburo expected him to be that they were being hunted. "Of course we're being followed and hunted."

"It might be the flies." Saburo admitted. "But it would be a gamble to stay here. A gamble that we might die from." _I sure wish Mois was here. I feel like the feeling like we're being watched only started after she left. Kululu said the flies were afraid of her, right? We could have really used her._

"I know." Kululu just sat down. "I made it as obvious as possible that there was a keronian wandering around this area. I just followed Keron's methods and used myself as bait. I set up some surveillance with the last of the hovercraft's parts and each one was taken out. We're definitely being hunted by something that knows about keronians like the flies. It's probably got a large host body too, probably some giant reptilian creature that their going to use to kill me." Kululu paused thinking. "This way we'll find the flyians at least."

"But what if we die, Kululu?" Saburo asked. "What if you die? This thing could be dangerous and we're really under prepared."

Kululu threw his arms up and lied down on the dirt, caring very little. "If that happens, oh well. I was going to die on this pitiful planet anyway since I'm not smart enough to be anywhere else. Might as well die here now. Ku, ku, ku. Darn Pekopon for killing me."

Saburo grimaced, he scooted towards Kululu and shook him a bit, making him stand up. He was having enough of this. "Stop having that sort of talk. You're not going to die." It was time to put some common sense back into Kululu or at least, more of his overly large ego. Saburo wondered why with Kululu there couldn't be a happy medium and it had to be overly large ego or complete anger/depression at various insecurities.

This moping and pitying had gone on way too long for Saburo.

"You need to stop talking like this. It's really not helping anything. And you need to stop moping and pushing me away. You've got to help me and trust me. You already pushed Mois away and who knows how she's doing? I don't know if she's ever been in a rainforest. But the facts remain that you can't push me away like you did her. You've got to let me help so we can find the flyians." Saburo glared as he spoke. "Kululu. I need you. You're a lot smarter than Mois and me. This planet is a lot bigger than you're ego. It's more important. So you've got to get it together and stop acting like a whiny brat. For all of our lives."

Kululu stood up and brushed off his legs. He sneered at Saburo. Saburo's words did reach him but not in a positive way. He looked insulted at especially the 'whiny brat' comment. And so somehow Saburo managed to snap Kululu out of his moping and silence to do exactly what he did best-be a jerk.

"If anyone's a brat here it's you. You haven't done one helpful thing to find these flyians even though you keep reminding me I have to find them for your planet's sake. All you've done is knock our only lead into a river and been around. You always just appear pointlessly, you don't really bring anything to the table, Saburo. You're just a teen wannabe rebel."

Saburo stood up towering much larger over Kululu. "Call me a brat as much as you want. At least I know some things are more important than my pride. Like this planet. People live here, they're going to die if Keron comes-"

"Pekopon this, Pekopon that. Nothing I care about is at stake if I don't manage to find any flyians. I'm just in the same miserable place I was before. Ku, ku, ku. If you want to be a hero and save your beloved planet do it yourself. But let me ask before you do what your planet has ever done for you?"

"I freakin live here! I can't breathe in space!" Saburo reminded. "I have a family here! And what about my life? Isn't that something you care about."

"Let me repeat myself: nothing I care about is at stake here. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu repeated just to be a jerk. "Maybe I don't want to bail you out of another bad situation."

Saburo knew he was lying. He knew Kululu did care about him but it still kinda hurt. _It's just a repeat of the Mois fight. He's just fighting with the people close to him again._ He knew this that Kululu just wanted to get a rise out of him and feel like he wasn't whiny or a brat, but Saburo still fell for the ploy.

"You're not bailing me out. I never brought this situation on the planet. You're doing what's right by fighting against Keron." Saburo tried to point out. Still a little hurt that Kululu had said he'd just abandon him he added. "I never brought any of my problems on myself like you did towards the military and Mois."

Kululu didn't retort back. Instead he launched himself at Saburo's leg like a gremlin. Saburo was startled and fell backwards, rolling down a rather steep hill.

Both him and Kululu rolled together down into a mud pile as things escalated into a literal physical fight.

 _So he wants a physical fight?_ Saburo smiled. _Well that would be my method of choice. After all you can't beat Kululu with words. He'll just be such a jerk and point out your every little flaw. Still I didn't expect Kululu to get so mad that he'd go with his weak point._ He always did want to punch some sense into Kululu during this trip.

Okay so maybe Saburo had just wanted to punch Kululu once or twice. Being around Kululu constantly just kind of made you want to do that. Even if he was your friend he was insuffurable sometimes. Perhaps it didn't have anything to do with putting some sense back into him.

Saburo and Kululu wrestled for a bit, Kululu realizing all too late that Saburo was much stronger than him and would have the advantage if he punched him. He tried to keep Saburo's hands down. Saburo rolled above him and towered over his friend.

"Finally time to punch some sense into you. Let's hope you get back to your old self." Saburo pulled his wrist out of Kululu's grasp and held his hand above Kululu's face. "You've got to get over this 'the military fired you thing' it's bringing you down, not letting you focus on what's important and destroying your relationships." Saburo reminded. _He's just lucky I don't take any of his words as truthful._

Saburo was just about to punch Kululu when Kululu spoke. Apparently some of Saburo's words got to him. That and in the mud pile Kululu realized he had fully lost. He didn't really want to bring himself down anymore. Didn't want to continue his losing streak so he decided to cut his loses. The fight left him and he just sort of gave up. He didn't particularly want to be fighting with his only friend and the only person he had left.

 _Maybe actually talking to Saburo will help. Will stop him from trying to use his anime cliches to 'make me normal' like punching some sense into me. Ku._ Kululu really hoped Saburo cut back on the anime soon. But he cleared his throat and tried to get some of his thoughts out "I...I lived for the military." Kululu confessed. "It was my only ambition and dream. I didn't really have anything else." Surprisingly saying that to someone he trusted felt rather good. He knew Saburo wouldn't coddle him too much. He'd just give him what he needed to hear. That it was his fault partly.

"What do you mean? I thought Sergeant Major Kululu was always on the top of everything." Saburo pulled his fist away. Kululu barely ever talked about how he felt.

Saburo had finally broken through by just making Kululu tired enough to give up his secrets.

 _Maybe I should continue talking. This is weird but I'm going to try something new._ "Before the military, as a child, I was severely bullied. It was either out of jealousy or something else. I don't actually know. But when the military found me after a few revenge machines gone haywire they said I was gifted. They saw my potential and gave me a purpose." Kululu sighed in nostalgia. Apparently he still wanted that, to have a purpose.

"But you were a jerk to them." Saburo reminded.

"Yeah. Eventually I got too big for my britches." Yet again he sounded nostalgic. "I started to dish up some of the same punishment and what I saw as just cruelty to others. But they didn't like that. I went too far being a jerk to some higher officers and I got severely demoted to sergeant Major. I...I wanted to climb back up in the ranks after a successful pekopon invasion. But that was never to happen. They had already made their choices about me and labeled me." Kululu looked like he felt truly sad that there was no second chance for him.

Being a jerk till the end hadn't helped him at all.

"I was used. The military wasn't actually a part of me. I gave them what they wanted with my intellect and then they realized they didn't need me anymore. That there were others that could be used in the same way. They had finished the Kululu experience and could move on. I'm just a discarded tool, like an ikea screwdriver. My worth is on the same level as an ikea screwdriver!" Kululu insisted in despair.

Saburo got up and sighed. _Progress. At least he's finally acknowledging what the problems are. It's rare to see him talk and be honest_. There was no more point in fighting.

He looked up at the sky wondering what to say. "Everybody is hurting from being used and lied to in your platoon." Saburo reminded. "You were all chosen for being useless."

Kululu frowned. _That doesn't help._ His face said.

"At least in your situation the military knew you had SOME talent." Saburo pointed out showing him he was better off than his other platoon mates. "In the end they just didn't like you because you were a jerk and didn't play well with others." He thought for a moment. "Perhaps since it's just one problem you could still prove yourself to the military?" He suggested, trying to give some hope. "You're in a different situation than the rest of them. You've got more hope and you're more well off."

Kululu tucked his legs under his chin and glared. "Not everybody is hurting in our platoon from being used." He grumbled.

Saburo looked confused. _Ummm? Is he talking about Dororo? I mean he might be right. Dororo did willingly choose to be a traitor._ He was lost though by Kululu's words. They sounded like they were filled with pure bitterness.

"Keroro isn't." Kululu said confidentially. "He probably bounced straight back from the news. Just like always when something bad happens. Our darn leader, the light of charisma." The light of charisma wasn't spoken purely sarcastically, there was also this tone of jealousy.

Saburo was speechless. He didn't really have a counterpoint to that.

"Keroro might be an incompetent idiot that you could easily guess was sent here because he has no redeeming qualities. Honestly? He's the easiest to figure out why he was discarded. He's an idiot. But with all that news Keroro will still bounce back easily. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu's tone was now purely jealous now. "Our oh so amazing platoon leader- useless and incompetent but still dealing with this the best, sending us out on missions to save this planet."

As Kululu continued to talk about how amazing Keroro was, Saburo's eyes widened as he realized more and more that Keroro was one of the other underlining stress issues that was bringing Kululu down. _It's clearly Keroro that's been on his mind this entire time. And that was what he was arguing with Mois about too. It was Keroro._ He didn't know why Keroro was such a stressor but there was either one of two possibilities. 1. It was either suppressed feelings for Keroro since Kululu kept talking about how great Keroro was. 2. It was jealousy of Keroro.

Saburo honestly couldn't tell. _Right now it sounds almost like he wants to be Keroro though. That he wishes he could bounce back from his problems as quickly as Keroro does._ And he was angry that he couldn't. He kept comparing himself to someone who clearly should be inferior to him but wasn't.

 _I can't really blame Kululu for wanting to be Keroro or being jealous of him. I mean some of Keroro's biggest strengths are some of Kululu's bigger problems. Keroro plays well with others and he has many friends. And those two things are Kululu's big weaknesses according to his file._ Of course he'd think about the one person who would have been able to be mischievous and a little jerk-y while playing it off as a joke and getting in no trouble whatsoever.

Saburo moved over to sit by Kululu's side. He could see that Kululu was mostly calming down although talking about Keroro did seem to make him look even more distraught.

 _I did manage to bring him back to common sense. Now I've got to figure out the real issues with Keroro and bring him out of that._ Right now Kululu's largest stress in his mind was Keroro. And Saburo, as Kululu's friend had a duty to listen to him and help him out.

"Kululu..." Saburo wondered how to ask this, "Do you have secret suppressed romantic feelings for Keroro?" He interrupted Kululu's sarcastic venting about how great Keroro was.

Kululu looked at Saburo for a moment. Then he started laughing. "Ku, ku, ku, ku! That's a good one! God. That's funny. Funniest thing ever." He laughed for quite a while. "No, yuck." He finally said

 _Oh. Guess my first theory was wrong then. He really is jealous of Keroro then._ Saburo decided."Well then..." He had only one theory left. "I've figured it out. I've figured out what's really bothering you. You're jealous of Keroro. You're comparing yourself in the file to Keroro. You believe that if you were more like Keroro you wouldn't have been kicked out of the military. That whatever mistakes you would have made might be brushed aside like his many mistakes. You're jealous that no matter how many times he screws up he bounces back. There aren't as many negative repercussions for him as you." _Probably because Keroro never specifically goes after negative attention like you do. He knows positive things are good._ Saburo finished his analysis and his speech.

Kululu's mouth hung open for a moment as his glasses cracked. He switched to a new pair. Reluctantly he finally sighed and nodded. "You pegged me." He threw up his hands in defeat.

 _So Keroro has become the symbol of his depression._ Saburo realized. He waited for Kululu to say more.

"Ever...Ever since I first saw Keroro in the Keron star competition I've seen something special about him. I mean he earned the fame Keron star! That's impressive!" Kululu reminded. "Ku. There's always been something amazing about him. Everybody seems to drift towards him and love him."

"So? What happened? It sounded like at first you weren't jealous. You were impressed." Saburo pointed out.

"What happened? I met the guy of course!" I met him on the space ship to Pekopon." Kululu recalled. "And he was nothing like that! There was nothing special or amazing about him. He was just a pure idiot! Ku, ku, ku. It was both very sad and funny, but..." He started looking sad now. "Somehow even though he was a pure idiot he already had two best friends in our platoon and one member hopelessly in love with him. It was just...It was unreal."

"That does sound like it would be rather awkward and confusing to an outsider." Saburo had never thought about how things were for Kululu coming into a platoon where more than one person was already connected to Keroro. Kululu had always been the outsider.

"And no matter how many mistakes Keroro makes...No matter how many times he messes up, everybody forgives him!" Kululu sounded angry. "Natsumi, Aki, Fuyuki, Giroro, Dororo, Tamama, even you sometimes, Kogoro he's got so many friends. Not to mention Mois's in love with him madly." He suddenly became silent, like he hadn't wanted to add that to his list of reasons. It had just slipped.

 _Well...I kinda expected that was at least one of the reasons._ It kind of sounded like that was one of the things he had lashed out about in their argument. "If you really felt that way, Kululu..." Saburo tried to give advice. "Maybe you shouldn't have acted like a baby and told Mois how you felt instead of casting her aside." It was tough love advice. "It's not because of Keroro that she doesn't like you more than him. It's because of you. It's because you won't let her because you keep doing things like this." Saburo sighed.

Kululu just squeaked like he didn't really want advice on his and Mois's relationship. He didn't even want Saburo to know about any feelings concerning Mois. He didn't have much to retort though. "I'm not a baby..." He sounded pretty mad, although Saburo's comments were spot on.

Saburo shrugged.

Kululu stood up and turned around. "You're wrong though about me and Mois. It's a lot of things not...Because I won't let her like me as you said. That's dumb." His shoulders tightened. "It's a lot of things although you're probably right that me pushing her away probably doesn't help the situation any."

"Lots of other things?" Now Saburo was a little curious. _Was I wrong that Kululu and Mois's argument was purely about Keroro? Were there other Mois related things stressing him out?_

"I was supposed to be smart enough to know these things. Accept them as fact. But I guess willing ignorant idiocy is another way I'm 'a dime a dozen'." Kululu was mostly speaking to himself now. "I was SUPPOSED to know that things weren't meant to be between Mois and I. I mean, I knew I wasn't special like Keroro. I knew Keroro always had her heart."

 _Oh geez..._ Saburo knew Kululu wasn't really talking to him. He was mostly mumbling to himself. Still it sounded like Saburo's advice had been completely wrong. _Kinda sounds like he already tried things with Mois and she turned him down and that's why they were fighting so much about their relationship and how she cared about Keroro more._

"Ummm….? Uhh….You don't know that?" Saburo said hopefully, hoping Kululu would confirm that he didn't know that Mois didn't like him. "I mean you've never tried to get together with Mois." Saburo absolutely wasn't sure that was true.

Kululu glared. "Shut up about mine and Mois's relationship." Kululu's tone was that of 'I'm not answering' basically confirming all of Saburo's worries. "Just forget what I accidentally said. You're misinterpreting things."

Saburo frowned. _Got it. Either a break up or just straight up rejection. Will not mention it in the future._ He hadn't misinterpreted anything. He nodded though. "I...I think we've had enough talking about feelings for one day. We should explore more of this forest and find that thing that's been hunting us."

Kululu nodded. "Couldn't agree more." He was perking up a bit, not because he had any hope of getting back in the military but perhaps because he had just spoken the real issues out loud- that he was worried that he didn't have any purpose or dreams and was jealous that Keroro did.

The two continued on their adventure.

* * *

They tried to explore every inch of the underbrush, but their were no more clues about the flyians. Kululu always advised Saburo to be careful and pretend that he was off guard, to lure whatever was hunting them. They always had that feeling that they were being watched.

Eventually though as they explored, both of them came across something. It was under one of the bushes that Saburo pushed aside.

"It's a cell phone!" Saburo pointed out. "That...Is not something I had expected to see here. Do you think it has some connection to the flies?"

Kululu's face paled. He instantly grabbed the cell phone on the ground. "This is Mois's phone."

"What? Really?" Saburo asked. He didn't really stare at Mois's phone a lot, but now that Kululu mentioned it he could see the resemblance. There was a little circular asteroid keychain at the end and it was a flip phone. "Is she that scatter brained to lose it?"

Kululu shook his head. "No. She'd keep it on her at all costs." His voice was shaky. "Something must have happened. I...I s-shouldn't have fought with her so much to leave." He didn't want to say it but it was easy to tell that he was worried that the thing that was hunting them had already gotten to her. _The one thing Mois would never_ _separate herself from was her cell phone, so finding it in the middle of nowhere_ _is worrisome. What happened to her?_

Saburo hadn't actually ever seen Kululu so worried. But it made sense in a way. Her cell phone was important to her.

"I knew she'd probably get in trouble. I mean she just looks like the type to not do so well on her own." Unfortunately Saburo sucked at comforting people.  
Kululu's spirals widened to show that his eyes had widened. He agreed with Saburo, but, that sure didn't help. He didn't really respond and instead clutched Mois's phone.

"It'll...It'll be fine-" Saburo tried to say, but he stopped his reassurance. His body went stone cold as he saw what slowly started towering over Kululu, hiding in the darkness of the lush greenery and underbrush.

Kululu hadn't noticed it yet, he was too focused on the phone, but slowly it become larger and larger. A giant snake 32 feet in length with a huge mouth with sharp fangs and teeth.

"I'm changing the mission. We've got to make sure Mois didn't get herself hurt and then we'll locate the flyians. Ku, ku, ku. All right?" Kululu asked. "Without her phone she can't really do much."

Saburo ignored Kululu. "S-snake."  
"Didn't know you were afraid of snakes. Would make more sense for me to be the one afraid of snakes, considering vipers used to eat keronians." Kululu mocked. "Ku, ku, ku." He noticed how pale Saburo was but he hadn't yet heard the hissing. He must have not been very focused.

Saburo pointed. Kululu didn't look too surprised as the snake's head shot forward to try to grab him. Instead he dropped to the ground and rolled just out of the way.

Even though he hadn't known about the threat he still managed to deal with it reasonably. Kululu looked up at the giant snake. "I didn't think snakes on Pekopon got this big. Ku, ku, ku."  
"They aren't supposed to!" Saburo threw his hands up. "They're supposed to be all extinct."

Kululu nodded. "Perhaps it was one of the hidden cryptids that Haru was looking into then when he found the flyians. Probably some of the flyians used it to protect themselves as a guard. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu hypothesized.

"Mmmff!" There was a sound coming from part of the snake's body.

Kululu's eyes narrowed in on the length of the snake's body, still many feet away and hiding in the branches of the trees. Some of it's body was wrapped tightly around a humanoid figure, constricting tightly around it as if trying to get it to stop making sounds. The humanoid figure was wrapped up to her eyes in snake body, but the eyes were no doubt Mois's.  
"Mois!" Kululu shouted. "Figured you'd be around here. Damn. It got you."

"Mm Fnnn!" The mumbling sounded a bit like "i'm fine' despite the snake trying to crush Mois's entire body.

"You're clearly not fine. Just...Wait just a minute. I'll figure out a way to take this thing out." The depression to Kululu's voice was totally gone. In an emergency he had a cool, level-head and was ready to figure out a plan.

Saburo just stood there. This thing was huge. It had hurt it's head briefly trying to bolt down for Kululu, having expected him to be completely off his guard but now it was getting ready to open it's mouth and swallow someone whole again.

 _Was this the thing that was hunting us?_ Saburo wondered. It looked over at him and charge.

Saburo just barely jumped out of the way. His mind was in a panic over how huge it was. If either it's mouth got him or the rest of it's body he'd be dead.

It's tail was drifting down some trees now and trying to reach over for Kululu to wrap around him.

 _Think! Think! What do I do?_ Saburo asked himself. He had to be the hero here. Mois was out of commission and Kululu was out of technology. He also had been known to do more dangerous things do to his depression. So it was all up to Saburo to get them out of the situation.

But Saburo had no ideas. All he could do was draw something and he didn't know what would stop a giant snake from killing them all.

He froze. He had no plan, no nothing. He didn't want to admit to himself but he was afraid. _I'm the only one who can do anything._ He knew. But it was just too much pressure in such a highly dangerous situation. Saburo preferred to help when he wanted. He could fight and protect people when the planet was on the line but not a specific person like Mois or Kululu. He didn't want to accidentally hit them after all.

While Saburo desperately tried to piece together what to do, Kululu moved. He immediately had a plan and despite what little belief Saburo had in him, he was ready to do something. "Hey! Hey snake! Going after Saburo, huh? Ku, ku, ku. Not very smart of you." Kululu tried to get the snake's attention. "But I wouldn't expect a species that was mostly extinct to be very smart."

Kululu sat down. He didn't run anymore. He just inspected his fingers like he was bored. "You're not very good at catching prey, are you? I mean I rolled out of the way. That was all I had to do to avoid you." He stepped on the giant snake tail avoiding it yet again. The snake wasn't very good at coordinating when it was already trying to squeeze someone to death. "I don't know how long you've been trying to constrict Mois, but you're obviously having problems with that since you're devoting a fair portion of your body to it. Ku, ku, ku. No wonder the other planets look down on Pekopon when their animals are as dumb as you."

Saburo didn't really know if animals could understand human speech. He supposed they could since Giroro's cat always seemed to understand them. The snake seemed to be smart enough to know that Kululu lazily sitting on the ground and mocking him was being an absolute jerk.

The snake turned it's attention away from Saburo, it's eyes piercing onto it's new full target, Kululu.

It didn't try to pay attention to Kululu fully until he was fiddling with his headphones and causing little sparks of electricity to zap it. It must have been very new to the snake and caused a deal of harm.

"Catch her when she falls." Kululu instructed when he had the snake's full attention.

Saburo nodded as he watched Kululu place Angol Mois's phone away from himself. He didn't know what Kululu's plan was, but maybe being a jerk did work in some circumstances like this one. It looked like Kululu was going to do something spectacular and smart. "All right, but what about you-"

The snake towered over Kululu and bolted down it's jaw unhinged. Before anyone could stop it, it swallowed him whole.  
"GOD DARN IT, KULULU!" Saburo cursed. Kululu had just gotten himself eaten and tried to be a distraction.

 _I should have done something. Kululu of course is still doing that, 'I'm going to throw myself into dangerous situations' thing._ He would be killed. Saburo bit at his nails as the snake turned it's attention to him.

Before Saburo moved, he heard a large sound coming from the snake's neck area. It sounded like a ringing sound, or some wave of sound energy.

 _Kululu's headphones can generate sound waves, right?_ Saburo remembered. Man, sound waves must be much worse inside something's body.

Suddenly his eyes widened as he realized what Kululu was doing. Then it happened.

 _Ka-Pow!_ The snake exploded from the inside. Giant chunks of snake rained down onto the forest floor.

Both Kululu and Mois fell to the ground, Saburo quickly catching Mois in his arms. He immediately dropped her though because she was very heavy.

Kululu coughed, trying to brush snake guts off of him.

"Kululu! I'm not denying your idea was smart since it worked, but why'd you decide to risk something like that?" Saburo asked.

Kululu stood up and went over to Mois's phone to pick it up. "I've been inside many things before. Memories, minds, other giant monster bodies, other things..." He looked directly at Mois, "Why not add a giant snake to the list? Ku, ku, ku. I'm not nearly as squeamish about snakes as the rest of my platoon. I'm a lot better than them." His ego was clearly back.

Saburo wanted to point out that it was still dangerous, but Mois was coughing a lot instead. Saburo tried to help her balance since he had dropped her.

"I'm sorry about getting caught by that thing." She apologized. "I mean I was caught for a bit. It just kept trying to constrict me but my body structure was a little too tough for it. You could say, made of gold?" She waved her hand getting side-tracked. "But...I wasn't very used to flying around in a rainforest. It was hard to fly in trees. I wasn't used to it. I couldn't cut anything down with my spear. It just wasn't a good environment for me, so I quickly got you could say, all tangled up?"

Kululu nodded and handed Mois her phone. "I understand." He was quiet. "You really should have gone off to Keroro. It would have been safer. You shouldn't have gone off on your own." He became even more quiet. "I...I was you, know...Worried about you." He was obviously trying to talk quiet enough so Saburo didn't hear. Saburo heard though and just smiled.

Mois smiled a bit shyly. "But I wanted to prove myself to you. I didn't want you sending me off."

There was this silence between them for a moment as they just looked at each other.

 _I hope they don't start fighting again._ Saburo realized wondering if this silence was an awkward one or just them appreciating each other. He couldn't really tell. He decided to make sure that they didn't fight again before it even started.

After all he knew Kululu didn't really want Mois gone. He was just weirdly embarrassed around her. Saburo knew the anime term was 'weirdly tsundere' so he kept trying to send her off to Keroro, hoping that she'd say otherwise. And they didn't need a repeat of that.

"Thanks Mois for trying to help us." Saburo smiled. "You were trying to hunt whatever was hunting us, weren't you?" He figured out.

Mois opened her mouth to answer or say 'you're welcome'. But before she could slumped over onto her knees. Soon enough she had fallen down completely and was breathing heavily.

"M-mois?" Kululu knelt down next to her. "Did the snake hurt you more than you were saying? Or did you just over-exert yourself?" He was pretty used to Mois falling asleep out of nowhere after all. Kululu quickly brushed her hair out of her eyes and put his hand against her forehead. "She's got a bad fever. I guess it wasn't sleep depredation. Ku." He gave his compulsive laugh, but his voice sounded worried.

"Makes a bit of sense. Doesn't that girl have virtually no survival skills?" Saburo pointed out. "She wasn't trained as a soldier like you keronians."

Kululu nodded, his hand still on Mois's head as she just closed her eyes and tried to breathe. "We should probably create a shelter here."

"Why not move away from the snake guts?" Saburo suggested. "It's probably safer and better for Mois too."

Kululu stared directly at Saburo. "Angolians weigh more than a few tons. Mois weighs two tons. If you want to move her be my guest, but without various inventive devices she's stuck here for the moment. Ku, ku, ku. It's impossible to move her."

Saburo paled. That explained why she was so heavy. He didn't think he could move her. "How can she fly then?"

"Angolians change their gravity based on what planet their on. On Pekopon it's a bit harder for them to when they want to stay on the ground. I think most of them accidentally get it around two tons if they want to have a weight at all." Kululu replied. "It's angolian stuff. I've been able to adjust her weight to a normal amount with rayguns and stuff so that she doesn't crush me if she trips, but when those ray guns aren't used...Boy is tripping painful." Kululu moaned.  
Saburo just paled. He nodded and quickly drew a tent like shelter with his pen. Quickly the shelter went up.

"I'll look around the area. Make sure it's fully safe." Saburo volunteered, knowing Kululu probably wanted to look after Mois. He was totally fine with that too, it sounded like Kululu knew a lot more about Mois's body then he did.

Kululu nodded and let Saburo go off.

* * *

When Saburo came back he noticed just how gentle Kululu was being towards Mois. He wasn't ignoring her, he was clearly trying to be attentive to her sickness and monitoring her condition. When he would touch her, to check on her fever or just offer support it would be a very gentle touch.

Saburo even saw him sneak holding her hand every now and then.

"You really do love her, don't you?" Saburo teased. _Crap. Maybe I shouldn't tease him so much. After all, the two of them broke up or something, right? He kinda implied that he had tried something with her._

Kululu jumped a bit. He hadn't realized Saburo was back.

"N-no." He denied.

"You had no self-doubt, no fear or anything when facing that snake. You just quickly came up with a plan in that situation." Saburo teased again.

He waited for Kululu to say something. Kululu was silent for a long moment from the teasing, and then he sighed. "I...I really messed up with Mois." He finally admitted.

"Well, getting in a fight wasn't the smartest decision you made with her but she'll forgive you. She's here now." Saburo pointed out. At least Kululu was finally talking and not denying it.

Kululu just sighed again. It was like he was tired of lying and holding things back. He shook his head like this didn't have anything to do with their fight.

 _Oh. It's about their break up or him getting rejected by her._ Saburo realized.

"What's...What's admittedly causing me a lot of stress...Which was just too much stress when the Keron thing was added to it...Was that I'm a dime a dozen to her too." Kululu admitted.

"I'm sure that's not...Not exactly true. You're an important friend to her. She's said that many times." Saburo pointed out trying to reassure him.

"We were friends for a long time. Good friends I guess. I mean I wouldn't usually say that out loud but I suppose that's what we were." Kululu confessed. His hands were up in the air as if trying to explain it now. "And it just kind of happened." His voice was layered with many mistakes, his fists tightened a bit. "We were both kind of at a road block with our individual goals, and really really stressed. My goal to invade Pekopon, and her goal to impress and get Keroro to fall in love with her."

"So…? How did that end up badly?" Saburo asked. He didn't really see where this was going.

"Being alone together on most days when you're supposed to be doing boring and pointless work doesn't really end well. Especially when both parties are stressed, irritated and unhappy with their life. Circumstances like that don't usually end well." Kululu's voice was now layered with regret upon regret.

Saburo was still confused. How did this end with Kululu being rejected? Or was this the story of how they had first started dating and then they had broken up? "What happened? I can't really listen and offer my stellar advice if I don't know, now can I?" Saburo asked.

"We...Umm..." Kululu was now slightly pink. "We accidentally entered a friend's with benefits relationship."

Saburo did a double-take. That was not what he was expecting at all. He glanced at Mois who was still asleep and then Kululu. He didn't really want to be imagining that. "Accidentally…?" He said skeptically, narrowing his eyes. _Kind of hard to accidentally screw each other._

"The first time was a pure accident!" Kululu badly defended. "I couldn't believe I had suggested something like it when she was sad and venting to me about her problems. And I couldn't believe that she had taken it seriously and I don't know, I couldn't believe that we- okay that she went through with it. However the next day when I was banging my head about many many mistakes and accidents, she was very happy. She asked if we could do things like that more often and we just kind of entered a relationship like that."

"That doesn't sound like an accident. You just said you suggested it." Saburo still couldn't believe that they were that close. Now that he thought about it though they had acted kind of couple like on this trip. Even if they labeled themselves as 'just friends', they didn't really act like it.

Saburo was just staring blankly.

"It just got worse and worse from there. We've kept it pretty well under wraps most of the time. Nobody else really knows about it, but..." Kululu rubbed his head again. "I feel like if I try anything with Mois like you said, or try to be with her and tell her that I..." Kululu grimaced at the next word, "Feel anything for her, she'll feel like I used her. I shouldn't have entered a relationship like this if I had feelings for her this whole time after all." Kululu points out.

He slumped over, putting his head up against his knees. "To her I'm just some sort of replacement for Keroro whenever he's not really paying enough attention to her, but to me she's irreplaceable." He confessed to his mistakes.

He was done fighting Saburo. He was ready to not deny stuff anymore.

Saburo just continued staring at him. He pat him on the back. He didn't know what advice he could give or how he could console him though. Kululu was kinda right. "Okay, so maybe you did make some mistakes. A lot of mistakes. You did ruin this one." Saburo said, still in shock but in reference to their relationship. "But you don't make a whole lot of sense. If you and her were so close why do you keep snapping at her? Sorry to say this Kululu but you're a bit of an idiot."

Saburo still felt that the honest path was the best one. That Kululu really should just talk to Mois.

Kululu groaned. "I am. Keron thinks I am. Mois thinks I am. You think I am. But...I'll find those flyians for any proof that I'm worth something." He tried to stop feeling bad for himself. Tried to be determined.

Saburo nodded. He could agree with that. It was a good thing to. They really needed to find those flies. They were wasting too much time in the rainforest.

* * *

They didn't feel like anything was watching or hunting them any longer. So the next day Kululu went out to put together and translate some more clues as to where the flyians were.

The snake seemed to have eaten more of those stone slabs that they had lost in the river. So Kululu decided to read them and try to piece them all back together like a puzzle. They were partly digested after all.

Saburo looked after Mois while Kululu was out.

He watched Mois sleep for a few hours until she finally woke up.

"Hey, Mois." He greeted. "How are you feeling?"

"Better." Mois nodded. She rubbed her head.

"Thanks again for taking out whatever was hunting us. I assume it was some guard or something for the flyians. Or it was possessed." Saburo shrugged.

Mois looked confused. "I...I didn't take out what was following you. I noticed it, I mean, but I got caught right after that. It was no snake. It was some sort of giant spider. Much better at stealth. You...Didn't know?"

Saburo frowned deeply. "But if it's still out there-" Kululu was off on his own.

Right then there was a loud mixture of screams that sounded a lot like laughter. "Kuuuuu!" Definitely Kululu.

Saburo and Mois looked at each other. Mois immediately tried to stand up.

"Stop! I'll deal with this." Saburo promised. "You're still injured. I don't want you getting more hurt or getting up."

"But..." Mois pleaded.

Saburo shook his head. He sat her down and ran out of the tent.

What was once a ground filled with lush greenery and the occasional snake guts when it hadn't been washed away by rain, was now web everywhere.

Kululu looked to be hovering in the sky. Really he was caught in some sort of web, twirled up in string. He looked irritated and infuriated, but he couldn't move. The spider looked like a giant, over the size of two or three large human males. It almost looked like a centaur too. Eight legs, two arms and a humanoid like torso.

Saburo whipped out his pen. "Just stay there, Kululu. I'll get you out of this." Saburo volunteered. "Let's see what's stronger- pen or string."

"Not like I have a choice. Ku, ku, ku. I kinda have to stay here." Kululu replied, not acting very thankful.

"So...The human boy thinks he can beat me?" The spider mocked, out of it's very human like face. "I do so enjoy snacks of human boys."

"I will beat you!" Saburo proclaimed and quickly tried to draw a sword so he could cut away the webbing. As he drew his sword and summoned it the spider shot forward a glob of string. It wrapped around the pen and even his half sketched drawing of a sword and pulled it away.

Saburo tried to pull against the string but it was strong like steel. His pen was pulled away into the web.

"Careful." Kululu said all too late. He could not however see what was going on since he was at a bad angle. "It would appear that whatever was hunting us was not actually gone. Good news though, I found the flyians. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu replied.

Saburo narrowed his eyes. Now that Kululu mentioned it he could see flies buzzing in the spider's skin, hatching and all. He could hear the buzzing.

"Amazing that the flyians are controlling a spider, something that should be their natural predator. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu pointed out.

The spider shot more thread towards Saburo. He tried to dodge by jumping up, but the thread just sort of piled on top of him, sticking him to the ground. It was better than being in the web but he could not move. "Crap!" Saburo yelled.

"Is it going badly? Ku, ku, ku. Try harder." Kululu's advice was pretty bad and rather sarcastic. He couldn't really do much. He was a sitting duck.

The spider let out a laugh. It then crawled over to Kululu. Opening it's mouth it moved to his body to insert more venom into him so he could move even less. "A frog will be a very tasty and welcomed treat. I will continue doing as those creatures say if I get interesting prey like you two."

The spider moved closer to Kululu to eat him. "Ku! Hey a little help here!" Kululu called.

Saburo tried to struggle free, but there was no getting free from the string. _And Kululu can't do his headphone trick if he can't move inside the spider._ Saburo realized. They were dead. First Kululu and then him.

He had to think of a smart way to get the spider's attention. But all his yelling the spider ignored. It was as if the giant spider only saw him as prey.

At that exact moment Angol Mois, despite Saburo's request ran outside of the tent lucifer spear in hand. She glared at the web and spider.

The spider whipped it's head up. "Oh? A new piece of prey. And a girl this time. I wonder if you have a sweet flavor."

"Mois! This thing is much harder than you think it is. It's some super powerful giant spider. It got my pen!" Saburo warned.

Kululu just laughed. "Ku, ku, ku. Now you've done it. A big spider against Mois? Ohh what you gonna do- be larger than her? I'm sure she's not used to that." Kululu was completely sarcastic. "You're dead meat."

Angol Mois rolled her eyes and floated upwards. "Have you seen how big my dad is? Giant spiders like this aren't giant to him. In fact this thing looks rather small." She shrugged.

The spider growled. "I'm more than just a large spider. I'm powerful!" It boasted trying to launch it's string at Mois. Mois flew towards the spider and avoided the string shots.

"Why would I be afraid of cryptids? They might be a small annoyance but this isn't my planet. Everything here will be obsolete to me eventually." She pointed out. She really didn't care. "Flying too fast into trees is much more of a hassle." She admitted. No wonder she had gotten caught by the snake so easily. It wasn't really even the snake's doing.

"What are you going to do? Squash me?" The spider mocked. "You're a tiny little girl compared to me."

"That's exactly what I'm going to do. Squashing things...Well, I hate to boast but it's my specialty and passion!" Angol Mois just grinned from ear to ear her face lighting up. She was flying directly above the spider now.

And then...She dropped out of the sky and downwards. "ARMAGEDDON 1/100,000,000!"

The spider wasn't expecting it. It didn't know what the weapon was but as soon as it hit it it blasted into a million pieces. The sheer force of the blast left a crater in the ground and disintegrated the web, freeing Saburo's pen and Kululu.

As soon as Saburo was free from the ashes of the sticky string he grabbed his pen falling out of the air. The flyians that had been hiding in the spider's skin were trying to desperately flee in a panic.

"Oh no you don't!" Saburo yelled drawing a giant net. He quickly used his butterfly catching skills to catch all the flyians as they mostly buzzed around in a panic about Mois.

Kululu fell to the ground as Saburo caught the flyians. He tried to roll around but he couldn't particularly move from venom still in his body. "I appreciate you destroying that thing for us, Mois. But...Why'd you come back? Why'd you help us? I was kind of a jerk to you and you really should be helping Keroro." Kululu just looked up at the sky. It was really all he could look at at the moment.

Saburo drew the word 'antidote' on a large piece of paper and quickly threw it to Kululu. Angol Mois fed it to him so he could move as Saburo continued to catch fleeing flyians.

"It's because I'm your friend." Mois smiled. "I think you're amazing, Kululu. You were so level-headed and calm against not only the snake but when you were in peril against this spider. The keronians opinions never mattered to me. You're amazing despite what they said." She paused. "I just want you to rely on me when you're hurt like this and not be so mad when I try to help."

Kululu looked touched as he finally got up from the spot he was lying down in. He was completely surprised that she so easily forgave him after their fight. "Stop being so innocent when I was being so mean. You can't tell me that you didn't think of abandoning me to the spider even a little bit when I kept being against you helping me on this journey. Ku, ku, ku."

"You were hurt. I understand and forgive you. Everything you said came from a place of your own self-doubt. You just wanted me to reassure you and I took some of those things too personally." Angol Mois could read him too well. "I forgive you but I want you to let me help. I want to help. I won't let any spiders eat you in this forest. I'll protect you from whatever there is, so just let me stay, all right? We've got to find all those flyians."

Saburo nodded. He had most of them in his net. Kululu had some cage to cage these guys in, right? But she was right. The four months weren't over. There could always be more and it would be more helpful if Kululu accepted that Mois was here to help and in the group.

He waited for Kululu's response. But Kululu didn't speak, instead he reached up and pulled Mois down into a kiss, holding her around her shoulders as he just kissed her.

Angol Mois turned deep red. "B-but I thought- S-saburo's right there! You s-said we couldn't kiss in front of Saburo..." Angol Mois pulled away a little bit, although her arms were now around Kululu. She was obviously deeply embarrassed. "You're...U-usually not this forward."

 _They already talked about not kissing in front of me?_ Saburo raised an eyebrow.

"I don't care. I just want to kiss you." Kululu replied. "Who cares about Saburo?"

Saburo knew Kululu didn't mean it that way, but he gasped in fake offense.

"You're right. You've always been there to help and support me. I was being stupid." Kululu admitted. He then pulled Mois back into his lips and went back to kissing her. Angol Mois, after a moment of hesitation let herself be lost in kissing.

Saburo cleared his throat to remind them that he was still in fact here. They had gotten one victory against the flies. Kululu had found them and identified them, luring them there, Mois had killed the creature they had possessed and he had caught them. It had been a group effort.

It was time to celebrate by teasing.

They pulled away, Angol Mois a lot more embarrassed than Kululu. Honestly it was the first time Saburo had ever seen Kululu so confident towards Mois.

"Y-yes?" Angol Mois asked seeing that Saburo needed something.

"It's fine if you missed each other a lot." Saburo began to smile. "In fact it's understandable that you can't keep your hands off each other. You can go screw if you want." Saburo raised an eyebrow. He was completely joking, teasing them in fact. He expected them to both get riled up.

Mois paled when she realized Saburo knew. "Ummm...W-well...Uhh-..."

Kululu glared at him.

Saburo smiled, but he stopped smiling after a second. Kululu and Angol Mois were gone. They had vanished before his eyes.

It had been mere seconds, yet they were that desperate to get on each other his harmless joke as permission.

Saburo's eyes twitched as he looked blankly at the spot that they used to be in. He didn't want this. He didn't want to even think about this.

Was this how the rest of the trip was going to be?

Well, at least Kululu would be in a much better mood. Really was a selfish jerk till the end getting what he wanted, and not wanting to pay prices for his own selfish mistakes. But at least he was over the comeuppance from one mistake, moving onto the next one.

Kululu really was an interesting and unique alien. But Saburo was slightly happy (although disgusted) that he was feeling better now that his relationship with Mois was repaired again.

* * *

 **I based Mois's weight off of Angol Fear's in the soul caliber guidebook when it explains angolian weights.**

 **Also forgive me for this chapter. It is long and just...everywhere.**

 **Anyway please review**


	10. Idiot

**Trigger warning for suicide mention. Or...Like forced death at least. Don't worry, nobody dies! I just wanted to put the warning to be safe.**

 **Also I wrote another chapter! I hope it's okay.**

* * *

Keroro wracked his head with worry. Was he doing the right thing? Were his platoon mates okay? He hadn't gotten any word from any of them.

Mostly his mind was on his platoon mates instead of himself. It helped to focus on others. Perhaps it was because he didn't actually have any plan whatsoever to find the flyians, maybe he just wanted to put off thinking about himself for once.

 _I made the smart decision. The choice that Keron wants their leaders to make. I split us up so we could cover more ground._ Keroro remembered. Not like Keron much mattered anymore in the long run. Had any of his achievements been real? Or were they just one lucky accident after the next?

Keroro didn't really want the platoon to be split up. He didn't really know what to do on his own, nor did he want to be alone. _I can't do this. I can't find those fly things on my own. I don't have the skills to do it. All I have is the ability to use other people._

But there were no more soldiers to use. He had been used in the end like a pawn. There was nobody to cry to to fix the mess for him.

Keroro wondered if he was truly alone now. If he was going to have to find the flyians all on his own.

"Sarge! You know you don't have to do this alone." Luckily Fuyuki, his best friend forever, was by his side watching Keroro look like he was about to complain. "I mean I can't offer much help because…." He shuddered. "They're gross bugs, but I can probably locate them for you. I'm real good at finding aliens. And I want to go on a cool alien adventure with someone!"

"I don't think I'm the type to do anything nearly as epic as Giroro is." Keroro laughed for a moment. "Didn't he go to some mountain range somewhere? The hima what's it called?" He didn't really know pekoponian landscape.

Fuyuki's face scrunched with worry. He didn't know what Keroro was talking about but it didn't sound good. "Yeah, with sis gone things have been kinda lonesome. I feel like everybody kinda left to find those flies." Koyuki, Saburo, Momoka, Natsumi, none were really around right now. And although Fuyuki wanted to do what he could to help Keroro part of him really didn't want to see those bugs again.

"Thanks though, Fuyuki. I'm glad I'll have your help." Keroro smiled. He really was. He needed someone to do most of the work for him, for him to piggyback off their ideas.

As if someone was reading Keroro's mind and offering himself as a sacrifice, Haru rushed into the room. "You can't do this! You can't find the flyians and catch them!" Haru yelled.

Fuyuki just stared at him. "Dad. They're bugs." He said simply.

"They're aliens! And they're my friends. I want to find them but not to turn them over to you. I want them to be safe." Haru frowned.

Keroro felt startled. "B-but...But I'm doing the right thing. I'm the hero now! I'm trying to save Pekopon by finding these things. I'm trying to prevent Keron tearing your planet apart for them."

Fuyuki nodded.

"Don't you care about your planet?" Keroro asked hesitantly.

"I won't hand over my friends even for the planet. You don't just abandon friends." Haru smiled at Fuyuki, like Fuyuki would understand. After all he had his own alien friends. "Even saying that though I'm not prepared to let my son leave and do some dangerous mission with you. I'll come with to make sure that I find the flyians before you. After all I want Fuyuki to be safe."

"Sure you do." Fuyuki said under his breath, "That's why you didn't look after me for most of my life and only want to be around me when I'm looking for some terrible bug." Fuyuki looked creeped out, but more than anything Keroro could see the hurt on his face.

For all he felt about the lies Keron had fed him, the lies his father had fed him and the disappointment his father no doubt had in him, Fuyuki was feeling the exact same thing. His father wasn't focusing on his feelings only the feelings of the alien friends that he valued.

The expression of betrayal was all over Fuyuki's face. Keroro knew it all too well. He wondered briefly if Fuyuki was rethinking his own exposure to aliens, possibly wondering if he'd turn out like his father when he became an adult, ditching his kids and caring more about an alien friendship instead of his actual family.

"I'm going to go actually help the planet." Fuyuki proclaimed. "The sarge doesn't have to deal with this all on his own. I may hate bugs but...I'll try to stand it because the sarge is my friend."

Keroro's face softened. _Even though he knows the truth that I was just some piece of bait he still cares enough to stand by my side as my friend?_ Fuyuki was so good.

Haru looked worried, like Fuyuki was making the wrong choice. "Fuyuki...You're doing the wrong thing. You can't just sacrifice someone for someone else." Haru replied. "Come with me." He offered his hand. "We'll find my friends together. And after that you and I can go adventuring together, looking for the occult. I'm sorry for leaving you for so long. You finding keronians...It was not what I predicted. The flyians have told me a lot about their crimes."

Fuyuki looked at his father's hand. Keroro could see that Fuyuki's eyes glimmered for a moment as if considering the offer. It was the thing he had wanted his entire life after all. There was nobody's affection he wanted more than Haru's. Not Momoka, not Keroro's, not Aki's. It was always his father.

Keroro didn't want Fuyuki to have to choose between him and his father. He was too afraid of what might happen in that situation. So he didn't make Fuyuki choose. "How about we all work together? No need to fight until we've actually achieved our goal." Keroro happily took Haru and Fuyuki's hand as if he was the bridge between them.

Fuyuki snorted for a moment but nodded. Haru, seeing his son, reluctantly nodded as well.

 _Phew._ Keroro was relieved. He had actually been afraid for a moment that Fuyuki would leave him. And if he was on his own during this journey? He was dead meat. _Admiral Papa and Master Fuyuki are on my side for now. Now I can use their smarts and piggyback off of their ideas!_ They would definitely find the flyians with the nerdy male Hinata's brains.

He felt a little bad looking like he was trying to fix their relationship. It was a guise after all, but he knew he needed their ideas. _I don't know how to do things myself._

With that unfortunate thought, Keroro tried to push what he had learned to the back of his mind. It didn't do any good to be focusing on Keron's file. If he cried about it he doubted anyone would comfort him.

 _I'm pretty sure Giroro would say, "no duh. Your being incompetent is by far the most expected out of our entire platoon. Were you really that dense?"_ Keroro imagined Giroro's voice in his head, scolding and yelling at him.

Truth was, he had been that dense. He truly believed Keron had believed in him and wanted to be a stellar platoon leader. He knew he didn't have that many talents, but everyone talked about how great he was so some of it had to be true, right?

Or had it all been a lie. Was he never really that great at all? _My father never said anything to me about any of this._

"I don't really want to work with you particularly, keronian." Haru sighed, but clenched his hand over Keroro's. "But I will. You're right that we should all stay together. After all there's that saying that you should keep your friends close-" He glanced at his son, "And your enemies closer."

Keroro gulped. "I don't want to be enemies, sir." He wanted Haru to like him decently. Or at least not suspect him too badly. One of Keroro's few skills was piggybacking off of others to get to success, he needed Haru to lead him to the flies. He needed to get in good with Haru.

 _But how can I do that when I've failed so much in everything else I tried? Being a good Keron soldier, the invasion...I've failed so much._ Doubt briefly passed in Keroro's head. He felt a pang in his heart. He missed his platoon. He needed their help and support to do this.

 _Maybe they wouldn't help though. I couldn't even be a leader to them. Can I really save Pekopon?_ Keroro wondered.

He already knew the answer to that: He could not. His platoon, Fuyuki, everybody believed him to be some sort of hero, but Keron had proven that that was a sham. Every achievement wasn't his own, it was someone else's and he yet again just piggybacked off their success.

Beating the Garuru platoon? Not him. It was Fuyuki's power that did something. All he did was order his platoon to help, which inspired Giroro and Tamama, and got Dororo and Kululu to actually do something.

 _They're all not my achievements. I'm no hero. I'm just super lucky and there in the right time and place._ Keroro thought to himself. _Heck, even clones of me fail! Dark Keroro couldn't invade Pekopon. None of my clones are the least bit competent in the end. They just appear to be for a moment._

He had to stop feeling sorry for himself. Stop focusing on this. He needed to focus on the flyians.

"Admiral Papa…? Since w-we're working together where do you think the flyians would have gone?" Keroro asked.

Haru thought for a moment. "I haven't actually searched the mysteries of Japan yet. That and I think my friends who were using my body as shelter-"

Fuyuki looked nauseated.

"Would have fled nearby. They're definitely still in this country and not that far away." Haru admitted.

Keroro smiled and gave a thumbs up. This was great! Now he didn't have to go on any particularly dangerous quest.

"I would think...Considering the number of supernatural things I've seen in my life...A lot of them centered around my mother-in-law's house." Haru admitted. "So I think the flyians would go there. They'd feel it was a safe place."

"So we're going to see grandma?" Fuyuki's eyes sparkled. He liked this idea.

"I like Fuyuki's grandma!" Keroro cheered. He could easily go along with this.

Haru nodded. "Well then, how about we go there tomorrow after you're all packed?" Haru was mostly talking to Fuyuki but Keroro nodded. He felt he was talking to him.

Haru ignored him.

* * *

It didn't take long for Keroro to pack, and soon enough they were on their way to grandma Akina's. They rode the bus there because Haru confessed that he no longer had a driver's license and that he forgot to renew his on his travels.

Keroro rode the bus, holding his bag close along the bumpy country roads. He tried to peer over Fuyuki's lap to see through the windows and see the mountains and pekoponian landscape in the distance.

It was kind of awkward sitting between Haru and Fuyuki. Haru obviously didn't want to sit next to Keroro, he looked almost uncomfortable and a tad bit frightened. Fuyuki on the other hand just sat in utter silence not saying a word to his father.

He was still mad about the bug thing. And being around Fuyuki when he was angry was always an unpleasant experience.

 _It's good to have Fuyuki on my side._ He didn't know what he'd do if Fuyuki wasn't on his side. He'd be completely alone. Just left in his own thoughts of his mistakes. _Still, I don't want it to be at the cost of Fuyuki having a bad relationship with his father._

Going to Akina's house always reminded Keroro of his own father. It reminded him of that one trip where they were tracking that weird shape shifting alien that took on one's greatest fears at Akina's house. Giroro's and Tamama's of course had been predictable, a sea cucumber and a 'lovelier version of Tamama', but his had always upset him. He didn't like that the monster had chosen it as his greatest fear. Made it seem like he didn't love it to.

The creature had taken the form of Keroro's father. And although he hadn't said much about it, it still bothered him a great deal. Was he that afraid of his father's disappointment? _I already know the answer to that. I knew it the moment I got that file. I am. I'm already a disappointment to him. But I didn't want him to know it._

He didn't want Fuyuki to have a bad relationship with his father. He didn't want any father's to be keeping secrets from their sons. All Keroro wanted was his father to apologize for obviously knowing his son had been put on a mission as bait and to say 'even if you were a military failure, I still love you,'. But that wouldn't happen. So Fuyuki and Haru had to have the non-professional relationship that his father and him didn't. They had to be more than people interested in the same goals- finding aliens. They had to be a family.

"Fuyuki," Keroro tapped on Fuyuki's shoulder when Haru got up to let an old lady sit in his place. "You should...try to value the chance to be with your father more and work on the same project." Keroro tried to persuade. At the moment they were both looking for the same thing- the flyians. The fights would start after that.

He wanted to bridge the gap between Fuyuki and Haru. _I can't let things go as badly as they did with my dad._ "I mean even if you're father's distant and all, at least he's trying." Keroro tried to negotiate.

Fuyuki just glared and wormed his way deeper into his seat. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you value him deep down. You just have to bridge the gap." Keroro insisted. "You got into the occult because of your father, didn't you?" He reminded. "He must be important to you since you care about the occult so much."

"He wants to protect those...Those bugs!" Fuyuki reminded.

"But he's just acting like you, Fuyuki. He's just acting like you, super into the supernatural. He wants to protect his friends. If your roles were reversed and you were having to choose between me and handing me over to an alien species, you'd protect me." Keroro reminded. "You're the same."

Fuyuki's eyes widened. He hadn't thought about it like that. His lip quivered. "You're right..." He nodded. "You're always right, sarge. Maybe I can try to forgive him."

The old lady got off and Haru retook his seat.

"Hey...D-dad..." Fuyuki tried to do as Keroro instructed. Forgive his father. "I forgive-." He shook his head, his fist tightening. He couldn't do it.

"You forgive me?" Haru smiled. He didn't really think there was anything that needed to be forgiven but he was glad Fuyuki wasn't so mad right now.

"I can't do it. I'm still mad!" Fuyuki huffed.

"But….But why are you mad?" Haru asked desperately. "I don't understand you." He didn't know how to parent.

"You kept the flyians a secret from me! You kept that you knew about aliens a secret from me. And worst of all you chose them over your family. Your own kid!" Fuyuki insulted in anger.

Heads on the bus turned, they tried not to eavesdrop on an obvious family fight.

Haru's face softened. "Oh. I had...No idea you felt that way. I always thought you were all grown up now." He didn't know Fuyuki still wanted his attention. "I'm so sorry. Fuyuki. I'm more proud of you than anything. You're everything I would want in a son. I love and care about you more than anything." Haru promised.

Fuyuki's anger immediately went away as soon as his father said he loved him. He threw his arms around his dad and hugged him.

Haru hugged back, holding his son.

And Keroro smiled.

* * *

Fuyuki was smiling and laughing as soon as they got to his grandma's house. He really was radiating with joy.

 _I guess fixing things between him and his father really helped lift his mood. He really is a boy just looking for his father's love, deep down._ Keroro smiled.

"Sarge!" Fuyuki lifted up Keroro in his arms and tossed him upwards, spinning. Keroro didn't remember the last time Fuyuki had so much energy to lift and toss something. After all he couldn't even really throw a baseball.

"Thanks for trying and not giving up. Thanks for fixing my relationship with dad." Fuyuki thanked.

"No problem." Keroro responded.

Fuyuki frowned after a minute. "Can...I return the favor? Is there anything in your life bothering you and bringing you down, that I can fix?"

Keroro stared at Fuyuki. _Did...Did he forget about the file? How my entire life is a lie and Keron just pretended I was some great leader for some mission where I was bait?_ It was true that he hadn't acted like he was sad. He wasn't carrying around the file with him all the time. But in his heart he felt a certain amount of sadness, locked deep away.

But as expected, Keroro bounced back. He had to after all. For his platoon that wasn't actually his platoon.

"Fuyuki! Of course there's something bothering your little alien friend." Haru actually noticed Keroro's mixture of emotions much quicker than Fuyuki. "Keron lied to him, remember? They sent him on a suicide mission." Haru didn't sound like he liked Keron too much.

"H-hey. I'm sure there's some decent explanation for it. They were just trying to find the best way to use keronian soldiers like me..." Keroro tried to weakly defend the planet he loved so much. He wished they had told him his real mission.

"Oh." Fuyuki's face clouded with worry. "I...I never suspected that you weren't invading, Sarge. I always thought Keron thought you were heroic and competent."

 _Thanks. 'Thought' is an interesting choice of words._ Keroro frowned. He knew Fuyuki never really saw him as an invader. "Thanks." He said anyway.

"Does anything in that file bother you?" Haru finally said. "I didn't read it. I don't think anyone knows what it said besides you. What did it say?"

Keroro frowned and rubbed his arm as Fuyuki set him down. "All the file said was that I was incompetent and an idiot in big words. It gave some information about the Hinata family's father following occult things and that's it. There literally wasn't anything else." Keroro replied. Really his file had seemed rather barren. He wondered if the rest of his platoon also had one word descriptions for why they had been chosen. Was the word 'Idiot' also written in big letters? "I really should have known I was those things already though." Keroro laughed weakly. "I'm just disappointed that I couldn't be a better leader to my platoon mates and that my father will never ever be proud of me now."

Fuyuki looked at Keroro with pity. He was glad Keroro was okay talking about his problems. But still confusion clouded his face after a moment. "I'm confused." He admitted.

"What do you mean?" Keroro asked.

"I'm confused about Keron's plan. Sending you out here to be bait and think that you had a fake invasion makes somewhat sense, but if that was the case why did so many other keronians attack you? Why did so many try to steal the invasion from you? Why did the Garuru platoon attack us?" Fuyuki asked still not knowing that the Garuru platoon had actually come down to test the Keroro Platoon.

Haru looked at his son with a sad expression. It was the expression of 'you shouldn't be asking those questions'.

"There's...Probably a couple of different answers to that question. They could have been sent to test us. Or to keep us on our toes about that lie." Keroro replied. "I mean we did have an invasion budget, although it was much smaller than other invasion funds now that I think about it. Keron did put resources into lying to us." Keroro reminded. "I don't know if the Garuru platoon knew we were a fake invasion troop adding to that. I doubt they would have told them considering how close Garuru is to Giroro. If Garuru's willing to support Giroro's relationship with a pekoponian girl he would have immediately told him he was being lied to." Keroro replied. "Not to mention that Pururu's in that platoon and she's looking out for us. So they likely were never told the truth."

Fuyuki listened to Keroro's sadness in his voice. Keroro's explanation sounded reasonable, but he didn't want his friend feeling so sad. "There has to be something more though!" Fuyuki finally said. As he said the words he himself actually began to believe it.

"Oh?" Keroro asked.

"If it really all was a lie and you were useless to them, why did they try to clone you so many times?" Fuyuki pointed out. He had fought way too many clone Keroro's. "You can't be a failure."

Keroro pointed to his chest. "I have the Keron star." Keroro finally started explaining. "That's probably why they were cloning me so much. After all you have to prove yourself in this huge battle royale competition to get a Keron star. It was a big deal." His voice had a hint of pride in it.  
"See? You're no failure!" Fuyuki explained. "You won the Keron star!"

Keroro sighed. "Yeah...But unfortunately it doesn't work properly like it's supposed to. It's something super powerful that can let those do what you order, but I'm so incompetent that it only brings me up to the bare minimum of charisma. Remember when Giroro's cat stole it from me? Yeah, even she used it more than me."

Fuyuki frowned. Okay, so Keroro was making his points. For some reason he had been able to win it but he was ruining it.

"My clones can use it to a normal extent. That's why they're a bit more powerful than me. But I sure can't use it." Keroro sighed. "Probably why they realized I was an idiot in the end."

Fuyuki still looked confused. "If...If the Keron star's so special that they were literally cloning you because they thought you could use it...Why didn't the colonel have one?" He finally asked. It didn't seem like many keronians besides Keroro had it. So many people had tried to steal it from him.

Keroro thought for a minute. "Only a few people can use it's actually true power to directly order someone to do something. I myself have been able to use it only a few times but that's still more than the average keronian." Keroro replied. "Probably explains why they tried to clone a better version of me that could use it fully all the time."

Haru looked like he was listening closely. He finally opened his mouth to ask something, looking confused. "...How often does the Keron society clone their own?"

Fuyuki's eyes sparkled. An occult question! He had always been introduced in the concept that keronians reproduced in test tubes verses the normal method. It was cooler and more alien. But every time he asked a question like that Keroro looked at him weird and debunked it. Trying to destroy Fuyuki's dreams of cool alien things. "Ooh! Yes! Yes! Please answer this question! I want to hear about cloning!"

Keroro scrunched up his face. "I...I don't know." He replied.

Fuyuki looked disappointed.

 _Hey...Wait. I've never actually seen Keron clone anyone besides me._ Keroro realized. Must be because he was unobservant. It must have definitely been happening. "I wouldn't doubt that old Garuru has a few clones though. That would make sense, right?" He hadn't seen it, but he sure the Garuru platoon dealt with their own issues.

"My clones of course always mess up at the end, but Keron keeps trying it. I guess it's because they truly believed I had potential at one time." Keroro confessed. "They don't want to waste that potential."

Fuyuki sighed. _What a boring occult mystery. It all has very quick and simple answers._ There was still one large occult mystery lingering in the air and as an occult researcher he had to know the answers. "You know, there's still a lot of mystery in the air. Like why keron wanted these bugs and couldn't just invade places on their own like this planet and bring their society into something much better. We don't actually know much about these flies."

Haru put his hand on Fuyuki's shoulder. "You're my son. And you're right that it's time to stop hiding the truth." Haru nodded. "I'll tell you about my friends."

Keroro immediately stopped focusing on himself and Fuyuki trying to convince him that Keron did care about him. Fuyuki focused too on Haru's words.

"In return for most of the lifespan of creatures born to this planet, which is my friend's food-" Haru explained.

Fuyuki looked disgusted.

"Don't be like that, they don't have a choice. You eat beef, don't you? It's the same as eating meat. It's just natural. Studying the occult means not looking down on things doing the things they need to do to survive." Haru scolded. "But as I was saying, in return for significantly cutting down our lifespan they protect this planet from aliens. That's why Earth has never been invaded successfully no matter how many aliens are competing over it."

"But where does Keron come into the story?" Fuyuki asked. He liked being not invaded, but he didn't like having his lifespan eaten.

"Keron used to eat these flyians to advance their civilization. After all the flyians had a lot of power and could grant power to their host, or whatever thing ate them. Keronians especially in their genetic code had something that made them more powerful than anything if they ate these creatures. I think the flyians even came from the planet of Keron." Haru explained. "It was natural for the keronians to eat them."

"So why did that stop?" Keroro asked.

"In the past the keronians were much stronger than my friends. From what I heard they caught them with a fabled creature that the flyians stood no chance against. The fabled creature was some sort mythical legend of the keronians. It hasn't really passed down completely through the generations of flyians so I don't know...completely all about it. But I know some." Haru admitted. "Anyway this thing was so powerful that the flyians didn't have a chance. But it apparently had some weakness and was eventually killed and the keronians lost their edge. The flyians fled after that and without their edge the keronians were doomed to not find them and not advance." Haru explained.

"If all keronians can't have their edge than how are we-" Keroro wanted to say.

"Yes. It's unlikely even if the Keroro platoon found them that they'd be able to capture the flyians and beat them. It's unlikely that they'd stay captured." Haru agreed, hopeful for his friends.

Keroro tried not to let that beat him down. He tried to smile. "My platoon is better than some fabled legend. If anyone can do it, it's us." It was a lie. He just needed to be optimistic.

For all of them. There had to be one member of the platoon that believed in all of them no matter what.

Fuyuki nodded and led Keroro to his grandma's house so they could unpack.

And soon enough it was time to go to bed before what would obviously be a huge day.

* * *

Keroro curled up on a futon that Akina had set out. The lights were out, but he could hear rustling. Fuyuki and Haru obviously weren't asleep yet but they were talking in hushed whispers thinking that Keroro was asleep.

"Fuyuki...After all of this has settled down would you like to join me on my next adventure? You want to be a researcher when you grow up, right? I can think of no better education than the field." Haru suggested.

"You want...Me to come with you on your next adventure?" Fuyuki asked, excited.

"Yes! I would love to have you. You remind me of me when I was young. I'm so happy to have a kid like you." Haru said gleefully.

Fuyuki sounded excited by the aspect, shaking a little. "But...What about mom? And sis?" He asked. "Would we all be going? Would it be a family trip?"

"Your mother has a career. We've chosen different paths in life and we've already talked about if it's all right if you went with me. She'd be more than happy for you and honestly I think it might lighten the load off her shoulders." Haru confessed.

"You..Might be right." Fuyuki realized. "I mean she did have a little difficulty taking care of me when I was younger. Grandma actually raised me until I was old enough to look after mostly myself." He confessed. "But what about sis?"  
"She's not into the occult as much as you. And you know she's much more like your mother than me. They'll be fine." Haru reassured.

"What...About the occult club?" Fuyuki finally asked. "What about Momoka?"

"...The Nishizawa girl?" Haru frowned. "Well, she'll still be here when you come back, right? And a Nishizawa really has the world as her playground. I'm pretty sure she'll still be around."

Fuyuki nodded like that was an acceptable answer. "I'll think about it! That sounds really nice, Dad! Like a dream come true!"

Keroro pulled the blanket over his head. He wanted to be happy about the offer Fuyuki had gotten, but something was making him sad. _He'll leave me. I thought we were going to be best friends forever._ He had never expected Fuyuki to be the one to leave.

Was he just boring to him now? _No, that can't be it...Maybe I just drag everybody down…._ He checked the keroball under his blankets. Fuyuki had lent it to Keroro for communication.

There were no messages from Giroro and Dororo. Keroro had kept checking every hour, expecting that his childhood friends would say something to him. That they'd need reassurance or would want to say that they were all in this together. But as soon as the lies had been exposed they just ignored him.

He wondered if they blamed him in a way. It was awfully coincidental that all three of them had been sent on this bait mission. It made him sad to see no messages. He curled up closer to the Keroball, just waiting.

"Please, tell me how you're doing." He wrote in a message and sent it to Giroro and Dororo. There was no response.

There never was.

And so Keroro closed his eyes going to sleep. Sleep was his only safe place now after all.

* * *

Keroro was a child again in his dream. He was waving and laughing with young Giroro and Zeroro.

"Keroro! Come home! I baked cookies!" His mother called, smiling in a field of grass.

"Keroro! You're going to be the pride of Keron someday. You are the pride of Keron." Keroro's father told him, obviously believing the words.

"Keroro!" Pururu yelled.

"Keroro! Keroro! Keroro!" Giroro and Zeroro chanted, joining Pururu.

Everyone was so happy to see him. It felt so nice.

Keroro looked at his small child like hands. He was happy. His family was happier with him.

 _What changed though?_ Keroro wondered. _Did I just grow up? Everybody here acts so differently towards me then they do now. My family's proud of me. My friends care about me and look up to me. Why...Why do I have to be so different?_

He dropped to his knees as everything just disappeared. Everybody who loved him. He was an adult now.

"Keroro. You're the pride of Keron. You've got to keep going. For all of us." A younger version of Keroro said, putting his hands on Keroro's shoulders.

"I can't. I already disappointed them. I already disappointed my parents. Giroro and Dororo don't look up to me anymore. I hurt Dororo, a lot. I can't go on for all of them." Keroro cried.

"I...I wasn't talking about them, Keroro." The young Keroro told him. "Keep going. You have to. For Keron."

Keroro just cried. He didn't want to keep going. "I'm not as strong as you. I'm an adult now. My childhood stupidity and optimism is gone. I'm not like you. I grew up."

The younger Keroro stared at him, he said something. Keroro could see his lips move, but he was drifting away.

And soon the dream was gone. He had woken up. All the people who cared about him were gone.

And he was all alone again.

* * *

Keroro walked outside of Grandma Akina's house. He saw Haru sitting by the riverside, catching fish. Fuyuki was still in the house, asleep.

"Hey." Haru smiled. "Morning." He handed Keroro a raw fish.

"I didn't know you could catch food." Keroro had kinda assumed Haru had no experience in the wild like Fuyuki.

"I was out adventuring for many years with not much money. And anyway my wife and I used to love doing this when we were younger. Aki loved fishing here." Haru smiled. He patted a spot next to him for Keroro to sit down in.

Keroro sat down.

"Fuyuki's still asleep...So I thought this was the perfect time to ask you. You weren't asleep last night, were you? Did you overhear us talking?" Haru asked.

Keroro looked worried for a moment that that was Haru's question, but finally he nodded. "It's all right. You don't have to worry about me. I'm happy for Fuyuki." He paused for a moment. "I'm just so happy that Fuyuki has a family that loves him." His dream was still upsetting him.

His father no doubt had an expression of disappointment that Keroro had turned out as a failure when he had been such a good kid.

Haru paused for a moment, looking at the river. "How...How do Keronian families work anyway?"

"Same as pekoponian ones." Keroro shrugged. "I love my mother and father a lot. Probably as much as Fuyuki loves his parents. After all I also followed in my father's footsteps."

Haru looked like he was focusing on the water. "Do...Do they treat you weird?" He finally asked.

"Whoa! That's a mean question to ask. Or psychologically deep based on someone you don't know very well." Keroro teased. "Or you just think aliens treat their young weird." Actually Fuyuki would probably ask the same question. _Still...I wonder how he knew? I mean my parents love me, bu they always did seem more distant than say Dororo's mom. I guess they must have just realized I was getting set up for a suicide mission since I was a failure._ He couldn't remember if they had always been so distant, but it made sense that they had become more so.

After all, his father would have known about the fake Pekopon invasion.

"Don't worry though. I understand family." Keroro reassured. "I would understand if Fuyuki left." He paused. "Momoka though...She'd be pretty upset. Maybe you should be having this conversation with her instead." He teased.

Haru blinked. "Why would Momoka be the most upset?" Haru asked. "Oh, wait...Do she and Fuyuki have a close relationship? Is she like an adopted sister figure to him? She did seem rather close." He was dense. Super dense.

Keroro laughed.

* * *

Once Fuyuki had woken up and walked outside yawning to join Keroro and his father, Haru unfurled a map.

"Morning, Fuyuki." Haru smiled. "I thought we could start discussing precise plans."

"Precise?" Keroro asked. He usually didn't have one of those. _Teaming up with Haru really was the right idea! Although stealing the flyians right as we find them is going to be tough. He's a lot tougher than me._

Fuyuki glanced at Haru and Keroro. "Were you two hanging out while I was asleep? That's great! I'd love it if my dad and my best friend got along! I kinda thought Dad didn't like you because you were a keronian and all."

Keroro rubbed the back of his head nervously. He was pretty sure that was the case.

Haru didn't respond. "I thought it would be best to get to know Keroro." He explained. He then pointed to a spot on the map and circled it. "I think the flyians would have fled places special to me. Sometimes when they chose to they can read a person's memories, and I loved to share my memories with my friends. I thought it made them a little more human."

"These are spots from your childhood?" Fuyuki asked excitedly.

"When I moved here these are places I would take your mom. These places were important to us. They were part of our courtship. So the flyians might believe they were the safest." Haru explained.

"Places you were romantic with Admiral Mama?" Keroro asked shocked. He couldn't, nor did he want to imagine that.

"….Do you have a girlfriend back home, Keroro?" Haru asked after a second of thinking. His eyes seemed curious like he had an ulterior motive to asking. Keroro didn't know why Haru wanted to know so much about Keroro's personal life. "Wait, are you even old enough to have a girlfriend? I don't actually know your age."

Keroro scratched his head. "Actually I don't know my age either." He laughed out loud. "Ha! Funny, huh? I guess it's just super hard to count those long numbers. Man...I really am an idiot like Keron said I was." _How can someone forget something so important like their age? I hope I can get Giroro to tell me the answer without seeming like too much of an idiot._ "But I'm old enough."

"Then...Do you have someone special in your life like a girlfriend from before the invasion of Earth?" Haru asked again. "Who's really close to you? Do you have a girlfriend?"

Keroro stared at Haru. He couldn't help but burst out laughing. "HA HA HA HA HA. Me? Have a girlfriend?"

Fuyuki looked at him like it really wasn't that funny of a question.

Keroro wiped the tears from his eyes. "Sorry, it just sounded weird the premise. I mean who would want to date an incompetent leader like myself?" He pointed out. "So no...I do not have a _girlfriend."_ He couldn't help snickering again at the words.

"I...I don't think it's that funny." Fuyuki still wasn't sure why he was laughing.

Keroro realized with shock that Haru was serious when he asked the question. "Oh. Yeah, no I definitely don't have a girlfriend. I mean there was this one pekoponian girl who was in love with me. It was real hard dumping or rejecting her because I really liked talking about the toys we both enjoyed." Keroro shook his head remembering Kaede.

"Oh. Oh I got it." Haru nodded.

"Dad, Sarge isn't interested in that stuff." Fuyuki tried to explain. "He likes toys more and his platoon mates. He's not worried about things like girls."

"Oh. OH! I definitely got it. I'm not dense, Fuyuki." Haru winked. He looked at Keroro for a moment. "Well then...Maybe I asked the wrong question. Who do you enjoy best in your platoon?" Haru whistled.

Keroro remained oblivious that he hadn't been clear enough that he wasn't dating anyone and that Haru now thought he was gay and just not interested in women.

"Oh! Well that's an easy one." Keroro smiled. _This is a much easier and better question than the last._ "I like Tamama best because he's a butt kisser." Keroro said very bluntly not realizing what Haru would obviously think he said.

Haru covered his face, trying not to show Keroro just how embarrassed he was by how easily Keroro said that.

"Although...I don't think there will be much butt kissing going on anymore...It's too bad because I really liked it. But there's no reason for it. I'm a failure of a leader after all." Keroro's voice dropped to a sad tone.

Haru put up his hands. "Okay, that's enough. TMI. I...Umm...Don't really need to know what you and that other keronian have been up to. It's just...Too much detail."

"I think it's sad. Don't worry, I'm sure Tamama will still be Tamama." Fuyuki reassured. "I mean, he's kind of the eternal butt kisser, isn't he?"

Keroro nodded. That was true.

Haru covered Fuyuki's ears for him. Fuyuki didn't understand why.

 _Thinking about it...I really do miss Tamama. I wish I could see him again soon._ Keroro thought to himself. Tamama was usually always around, either coming out of nowhere, or just coming to play.

It was weird being without him. It didn't feel right. It made him feel this odd queasy feeling. As if he was waiting for Tamama to come back and make it better.

"I...I feel worst for Tamama in our platoon." Keroro admitted. "I mean out of all of us Tamama's the youngest. And I bet this is one of his first missions. He doesn't deserve to be cast aside by Keron when he's so young."

"None of you really deserve it-" Fuyuki tried to tell him.

"Yeah, but I'm sure some of made our own mistakes. We made those mistakes when we should have known better. Giroro, well he's kind of angry. Dororo's a traitor. I'm an idiot. And Kululu's well...He's just a jerk." Keroro pointed out. "Tamama didn't know any better. Sure he's violate and experiences dangerous mood swings every now and then but I hope he gets a chance to prove himself to Keron and redeem himself. Because out of all of us he deserves it the most. He hasn't ever had a second chance before. Unlike the rest of us who had way too many I assume."

Fuyuki put his hand on Keroro's shoulder. "It's okay to be mad for your friend's sake. It's sweet of you to be so worried for Tamama."

Keroro looked confused. He didn't realize his thoughts were so centered around Tamama.

* * *

They checked many locations, riversides, Haru's old high school. All sorts of places. But the flyians were nowhere.

It took many days, but Haru eventually had a new idea. "The 20th is coming up." He realized.

"So?" Keroro asked.

"That's the spring festival. It's when and where I proposed to Aki. It would have been the memory that is by far the strongest to the flyians. I bet they'll be there." Haru suggested.

"So you mean...We get to find the flyians….and party?" Keroro asked. _Yes! Yes! Yet again I knew teaming up with Haru was the right idea._

"...And suddenly I wonder if you're truly a threat to my friends. It's very obvious and clear I'll be able to get to them and keep them out of your hands before you." Haru said. Keroro clearly was not very competent.

Keroro frowned feeling slightly insulted.

"The spring festival? Mom's told me a lot about that! Grandma took me there a few times." Fuyuki looked excited.

"You two can have fun while I look for my friends." Haru told them.

Fuyuki grinned. He'd much rather be at a spring festival than chasing after some bug!

* * *

There was no preparations needed for them to go to the spring festival. When it came, they merely walked up a large mountain path.

Keroro and Fuyuki were very out of breath when they finally got to the top of the path.

"Ugh...I forgot about the walking part." Fuyuki huffed.

"It's close to a nice forest." Haru smiled. "And look at all the stalls and vendors."

There were a lot of stalls and vendors. But for a festival it was also small. Not too crowded. A lot of country people. Hicks.

Fire works were in the sky. It was dark.

"Here you go." Haru handed Fuyuki and Keroro masks and some treats to entertain them while he actually did his job. "It's tradition to wear the mask of a monster during the festival."

"Uhhhh...Since I'm invisible I don't think I will. Also I already have a weird face to you guys." Keroro pointed out.

Fuyuki put the mask on. "Come on, Sarge! Let's go look at the drum sets!"

Keroro couldn't stop Fuyuki from being excited and purposefully forgetting all about the bugs he was so afraid of. Instead Fuyuki grabbed Keroro's hand and dragged him away.

Haru waved to them. Now he could finally search in peace.

"Shouldn't we be looking for the flyians, Fuyuki?" Keroro tried to ask.

"It's rare to be in town for the spring festival. We can look in a few hours." Fuyuki said childishly as he tried to play a festival game.

Keroro wrangled out of Fuyuki's grip as a ring toss kept Fuyuki's attention.

"Listen...I know why you don't want to look. You're pretty sure they are here. There is a large forest nearby and you're afraid of bugs..." Keroro pointed out.

Fuyuki sighed. "I...I just don't want to think about them right now. We can look in a minute, all right? Just wait right there." Fuyuki ordered.

Keroro sighed and nodded. Fuyuki quickly got side tracked by another fun event.

Keroro waited for a few minutes, but eventually he got bored of waiting. He could see Fuyuki in his field of vision so he started walking around to enjoy the festival himself.

Between the third and fourth stall was a large pathway to the forest. It looked rather normal but still Keroro stood in front of it.

Then suddenly, just as a firework went up into the sky and people cheered, Keroro saw a light on the path. It was like an orb just floating in the middle of the pathway or some light up laser someone would use on their cat.

"W-what?" Keroro looked at the orb floating. It wasn't disappearing. He looked around. Nobody was looking at it.

In fact, nobody was even looking at the pathway. Nobody was walking on it despite the busy street with the wall.

It was a rather small pathway. Keroro wondered how it had even been made for pekoponian feet. It looked keronian sized for a pathway.

But the orb kept hovering. "Fuyuki! Fuyuki do you see that?" Keroro asked.

"Yeah, beautiful fireworks." Fuyuki shouted from across the street. He didn't see Keroro or what he was staring at.

Keroro grumbled and marched over to Fuyuki. "Fuyuki. I really want you to see this. I don't really understand it and an orb of light might have some connection to the flyians. Or occult."

Fuyuki dropped his dumpling. "Occult?" He immediately became interested. He took Keroro's hand as Keroro led him to the third and fourth stall.

"There." Keroro pointed to the orb of light that still hadn't gone away. It was just floating there. "What the heck is that? A reflection or something? Something to do with the flyians?"

Fuyuki looked confused. He then looked at Keroro. "What….What do you mean?"

"The orb of light. You know, on the path." Keroro repeated again. "What is it?"

"Sarge..." Fuyuki was very pale. "There's no path there. It's just high grass."

Keroro's mouth opened for a moment. "But there's clearly a path there!" He pointed again. "And an orb!"

Fuyuki shook his head. "Oh! Wait, I understand. You wanted me to be looking for the flies instead of having fun, didn't you? Using occult to get to me. That's mean, Sarge." Fuyuki frowned. "We can look after things are done. Dad's looking around after all. I'll get him to alert me if he finds anything."

And with that he ran off.

Keroro glared in annoyance. _I'll have to uncover this mystery myself. I_ _f Fuyuki's just going to pretend this path doesn't exist so he can't see those bugs he's afraid of...Well I kinda understand. But I gotta do what my platoon needs me to do._ And so he marched onto the path.

Keroro ran up to the orb and grabbed it. It disappeared in his hands. "Huh?" Suddenly a new orb of light appeared a few feet away from him.

He went up to it and grabbed it. The same thing happened. _Are...Are they leading me some place?_ He had red about this in horror manga.

His legs shook. But for some reason he was curious enough to keep following them. If this was a plan by the flies...Well, at least he would find them, right?

He just had to continue following the lights.

And so the lights led him deeper and deeper into the forest.

It was about fifty minutes later that Fuyuki realized Keroro was missing. "Did Sarge get lost?" He looked towards the large forest looming on the mountain. He had heard that place was easy to get lost in, and deep.

He threw off his mask. "Sarge!" He yelled. He had to go after him.

He had to find his best friend. Because it was his fault for letting Keroro get lost in the first place.

* * *

Eventually Keroro came across a large clearing and the last orb disappeared. Just as Keroro expected a huge swarm of Flyians were flying around in the clearing like a tornado. However all of them had their backs turned away from Keroro.

They had not expected him.

"Ummm...Hi? I got the trap you set for me?" Keroro waved, trying to greet them.

All the flyians snapped to attention. He saw them buzz...Or was that shivering?

" _He's here. He's here! How did he get here? We thought we cloaked this place well in power."_

" _He's just standing there. Just standing!"_

" _He sneaked up on us. How dare he!"_

Keroro heard all sorts of frightened flyians speak. Their words were being blasted into his mind. _They...Weren't expecting me? Then who conjured up the light show?_

"Yes! Yes! I came here all on my own and figured out how to get here all on my own!" Keroro was confused but he tried to put on fake bravado to frighten the flyians even more. "I am the great, and confident Sergeant Keroro! And I am going to catch you." He reached towards his waist and realized all too late that he had nothing to catch them with.

 _Oh. I'm an idiot. Crap._ Keroro realized. He really was a failure. He had no tools or plan besides 'find them'.

The flyians glanced at each other. Then suddenly a few launched themselves at him, closer.

Keroro swatted them away, but they had touched his body.

" _Sergeant Keroro."_ The fear was out of their voices and they spoke as one. A hive mind instead of all sorts of panicked creatures. They all grouped together and Keroro felt frightened for a moment.

He knew they were just flies. That they shouldn't be able to do anything to him, but together they looked like some big monster.

" _We know you. We have read your thoughts."_ They greeted. There was power in their voice. Intense power.

Keroro tried to take a step back. He walked into a tree. Where was the pathway that had been there a second ago? "W-what...Are you going to tell me I'm in love with someone too like Haru did when he pretended to know all of our thoughts?" Keroro tried to continue to sound confident but he was frightened now too.

" _No. We can see something else...Something in your mind. A file that you've been avoiding. A file labeled Sergeant Keroro." _The flyians spoke up.

Keroro gulped.

" _You've been trying to avoid how terrible you are. How much of a failure you are. Ignore it."_ They told him.

"N-no. I just...I have to focus on you guys. My platoon probably got much worse. And I'm Keroro. They want me to bounce back. They expect me to be happy and a leader and bounce back! I gotta-!" Keroro tried to speak.

The flyians were ready continue laying out their harsh truths. _"You're incompetent. You know your platoon wouldn't have been dragged down if not for you. Two of your childhood friends being here? Isn't that too coincidental. It's all your fault. You poisoned their life."_ They mocked. _"The invasion could have been real, would have succeeded if not for you. They tell you that every day. You know that."_

"It's not my fault that Tamama or Kululu were here! I've never met them before any of this!" Keroro was on his knees now.

" _Is it really not your fault? Those two would have definitely succeeded in the invasion if not for you. Tamama was a better leader than you, wasn't he? Kululu's actually competent unlike you. So you must be the reason that neither of them succeeded."_ The flyians were trying to beat down his confidence so he didn't attack. Keroro wasn't smart enough to see that. It just worked incredibly well.

"I'm their leader. I'm the leader of the Keroro platoon. I can't give in to you-" Keroro was completely on the ground.

" _You're a fake. You were never meant to be a leader. Your parents knew it. You saw your father on the ship with the colonel when he blasted off didn't you? He may not have been there to see your humiliation but he knew. He just stood behind the scenes lying to you. You were a disappointment to him."_ The flyians mocked.

Keroro cried.

" _He knew full well you were bait. That we were supposed to kill you and Keron would be alerted to our presence from your blood and the revenge we would take."_ The flyians spoke. _"Are you crying? How truly pathetic. All of the other Keroro's truly are better than you, like that dark Keroro."_

"I'm not crying. And they...They aren't. Nothing can beat the original! Not even my clones." Keroro tried to stop crying. He was sniffling.

" _Ha! That was us trying to imitate human laughter. Why would you be the best? You're the biggest idiot in the world. The biggest fool. Liking children's toys more than your job. You don't deserve to live. You're the biggest failure of a leader, only just put up as a puppet."_ The flyians spoke.

Keroro just let out sob after sob, cradling his body and tightening himself into a ball.

The flyians seeing that their job was done and Keroro would not go after them, fled to safety.

Keroro cried and cried. _It's all true. It's all true._ He just felt more and more depressed. It was many minutes later that Fuyuki ran into the clearing. It was much less darker than it had been when the flyians were there.

"Sarge!" Fuyuki scooped up Keroro in his arms, seeing that he was crying. Haru was next to Fuyuki. "Where did you go? Did you trip and get hurt? We couldn't find you for a long time."

"H-how did you find me?" Keroro sniffled.

"Your crying was loud and drew us closer." Fuyuki admitted awkwardly. "Are you okay?"

Keroro shoved Fuyuki off of him. "I'm fine. I just ran into the flyians."

"Are they okay?" Haru asked desperately. "Did they get away?"

"Yeah...I couldn't catch them." Keroro admitted.

"Thank god. I'm glad my friends got away." Haru felt relieved.

"What...What did those awful gross bugs do to you?" Fuyuki asked. "They messed up Sarge, and that I won't allow. I'll protect the sarge from those creatures."

Keroro shook his head. "They...Actually didn't do much of anything. All they did was speak the truth." He was no longer crying. His voice just sounded hallow.

It was the truth. He was a failure and he knew it. It wasn't like his file had said all of that in specific. It just had the large word 'Idiot'. But he knew all about his idiocy.

Keroro knew better than a file what his faults were.

* * *

The next day Keroro was mostly quiet as Haru spoke to Fuyuki about various things that didn't have to do with the flyians.

Keroro knew he should be listening. He needed to use Haru to get to the flyians after all. That was his plan. He should be sticking to that plan. But he didn't want to.

 _I want them to know that I'm not a failure. That I can do things on my own._ He had to prove himself and them wrong. He couldn't afford to be an idiot any longer.

 _I'll find them on my own! That's what I'll do. I'll just sneak off!_ Keroro smiled to himself. Everybody would be so proud of him.

So while Haru and Fuyuki were talking, he tried to tip-toe away.

Fuyuki glanced over at him while his father was in an occult lecture unaware that Fuyuki's attention was elsewhere.

 _Sarge...He's sneaking off. Does he plan to find the flies on his own?_ Fuyuki wondered. His teeth chattered at the idea of Keroro trying to face the flies alone again. It would not go well. _He's...Acting a little unstable ever since yesterday. They must have really said some bad things to him._

He had to follow Keroro. Secretly though. He couldn't let Keroro know how worried he was. It might hurt his feelings. He'd just keep Keroro safe. Protect him.

While his father was distracted he walked away, to follow Keroro in secret.

Hopefully they wouldn't even run into the flyians.

* * *

Surprisingly it didn't take Keroro long to run into the flyians again. It was yet again in one of the woods near Akina's house.

" _Crap. He's back."_ They buzzed around as Fuyuki desperately hid behind a tree.

"I found you! See! I'm no failure! I did it all on my own. No following magic light show this time!" Keroro announced. "Okay...So maybe those orbs were there. What are they anyway? They aren't...Fly poop are they? Please tell me it isn't like anything gross."

" _Why did you come back? Are you back for us to tell you more truths from your own mind?"_ The flyians mocked. _"To tell us how you've failed?"_

"I'm not listening! I've learned to ignore you-" Keroro tried to gloat.

" _Everybody you know is just pretending to like you. It's one of the things you've tried to pretend isn't real, but it is."_ The flyians spoke.

The color drained out of Keroro's face. He clearly didn't know how to ignore them. He shook his head. "Not true! Not true! I have lots of friends who like me!"

" _Pururu is sick and tired of you. She's got other friends. Giroro and Dororo won't contact you or talk to you. Tamama only acts like you're cool because you're his superior but gets sick and bored of you all the time. You're just a passing interest that he's very blunt about no longer thinking is cool. And Kululu blame you for all of this. They hate you secretly. Angol Mois just puts up with you because you have some sort of family like connection to her and she feels the need to respect you, Natsumi hates you on a daily basis. They all hate you."_ The flyians told him.

"No! No!" Keroro yelled trying to deny those facts.

" _You really should die. It would be easier on them and yourself. Solve a lot of problems that way."_ The flyians tried to goad Keroro.

It was harsh, cruel, words. Keroro's eyes spun. "Fuyuki. Fuyuki doesn't hate me."

" _Fuyuki?Fuyuki hates you the most. He only puts up with you because you're an alien. Do you ever actually have anything in common? Anything Fuyuki really likes about you besides your race? He puts up with you. But he's tired. He hates you."_ The flyians mocked.

"That's not true!" Fuyuki was done with this. He jumped out from behind the tree. "How dare you say things about my feelings that aren't the least bit true, you're being way too cruel to him?" The fear was out of his eyes replaced by just anger.

But as he opened his mouth to yell those protests, the flyians acted. They swarmed the poor boy as he tried to yell, having predicted that it would get Fuyuki to reveal himself.

They didn't swarm around him. No, they did something much crueler. They flew down his throat the moment he opened his mouth to talk.

"ACK!" Fuyuki reached around his neck, trying to close his mouth, but the amount of flyians had pried it open. He couldn't close his mouth as the flyians closed off his airways from the inside. "H-help-!" Was the one thing he weakly managed to say, his eyes wide open and tears rolling down his face.

Keroro reached out to him, but his feet wouldn't move. He wouldn't move any closer out of fear. His legs were shaking as they dropped to the ground, his arm weakly holding itself out as if to reach for Fuyuki. "F-fuyuki! Fuyuki! FUYUKI!" He yelled. He was just too afraid to act.

 _What if I try to help him and fail anyway? What if they kill me for moving?_ All sorts of fears and anxieties floated around in Keroro's head. It froze him. _What if I get Fuyuki and me killed?_ He shouldn't have tried to save the planet. He knew he couldn't have done any good. And now Fuyuki was getting hurt because of it.

He was afraid of dying. It wracked his whole body with intense paralysis and fear. But trying and failing also made him frightened. He couldn't get hurt if he never tried.

But Fuyuki was getting hurt now. And he didn't know what to do. He had to save his precious friend.

 _I have to save Fuyuki. No matter what. But...I'm not a fighter. I can't do anything to stop them. I don't have any skills. I'm just an idiot._ He was a worthless idiot.

But that was when Keroro got an idea. He was just an idiot. His life wasn't worth as much as Fuyuki's. "Wait! Don't kill him!" Keroro paused. His whole body was shaking. "I'll make a bargain with you. A trade."

The flyians stopped buzzing. It managed to give Fuyuki enough air to at least breathe somewhat, although his body was now filled with flyians and it caused him to just looked like he was in a constant expression of screaming and agony.

" _Oh? Have you figured out what we want? What are you willing to offer?"_ They asked Keroro.

"I have figured out what you want." Keroro nodded. "It's my death, isn't it?" _Every time we meet they try to goad me into dying. Saying that I should die. I bet because I'm a keronian they're too afraid to kill me themselves so they want me to do it._ "I'll give you my death if you promise that Fuyuki will be safe and you'll let him go."

Keroro didn't know if Fuyuki was trying to shake his head. All he saw was his friend crying.

" _So...You do have some amount of intelligence in you. You do know what we want. Your blood. Yes. That is acceptable."_ They stopped chocking Fuyuki.

A few of the flyians flew out of Fuyuki's body and towards Fuyuki's pants. They took the belt around his pants, which was really the only rope in the area. Fuyuki and Keroro were vastly under prepared for fighting flyians so they didn't really have any weapons on them for killing.

The flyians put the belt on a branch and tied it into a noose. They then flew away so that Keroro could go up to it.

Keroro's legs were shaking. He didn't want to do this. _But I've gotta save Fuyuki. His life is worth so much. I...I have no choice._ He tried not to look at Fuyuki as he went to the noose about to put his head in it.

There was a sound from above. The loud sound of a helicopter.

 _That's odd. Why would a helicopter be in the sky. Oh well. Doesn't really matter._ Keroro thought to himself.

Fuyuki tried to make a sound as if he was trying to say something. His focused on the helicopter desperately. He must have recognized it. "MMMK!" He was sobbing. But it looked oddly like it was a sob of relief.

"CANNON BALL!" A voice sounded from above.

Before anyone could move or predict anything, Tamama had jumped down onto the ground, making a large impact noise.

Momoka slid down a rope by his side, armed with a blaster on her back. "I heard from my satellites that Fuyuki was in danger! You flies-You don't deserve to live. You might be super powerful but you're not as powerful as a Nishizawa. And you made a mistake touching my man."

"We knew that we were supposed to split up and cover more ground, but we want to work together!" Tamama cried. "That and Momoka's senses said you were in trouble!" Tamama ran up to Keroro. "I don't know what's going on, but get away from that!"

"But...But I have to...I made a deal..." Keroro said weakly.

"Snap out of it, Mr. Sergeant!" Tamama didn't care if Keroro was seriously broken down or depressed, he was worried for him. He slapped away the belt from the branch and stomped on it.

"I….I have to save him though. But I can't in the end...I can't save anyone." Keroro whimpered. "I couldn't even move to save Fuyuki." He just looked at Tamama's feet, not even looking directly at him. "You're probably just an illusion sent by the flies or something to tell me how stupid I am. They really like beating me down. Proving to me how much of a failure I am."

"Illusion or not, I'm here now." Tamama grabbed Keroro's hands. "And you have saved people, Mr. Sergeant! You're my hero and you always will be. Don't let those mean flies beat you down. I don't know what lies they've been feeding you, but you're no failure. You've never been a failure to me."

Keroro looked up at Tamama in surprise. "But...But we haven't invaded Pekopon because of me. How can I be your hero?"

"We haven't invaded the planet because of all of us! We're all failures together. Have you seriously forgotten all the times that Giroro and Dororo screwed up our plans? Or my bad plans to change the water system into soda? Or how Kululu's only doing things for his own agenda? It's all our fault. Not just yours." Tamama lectured, holding Keroro's hands tightly. "We're all in this together. And I'm happy to be here with you."

"W-what? How can you be happy that you're on this planet? We...We were lied to Tamama. You were lied to. This wasn't an invasion at all!" Keroro reminded.

"I would have come even if I knew I was going to be bait." Tamama confessed. "I'd come as long as I got to be with you."

"You...You...Would?" Keroro was shocked, but for some reason he felt really happy at those words. "Why?"

"Long ago before Pekopon you saved me on my first mission. You saved my life. And I've never forgotten that. You made me feel like I was worth something to someone. You're my hero, Mr. Sergeant." Tamama confessed.

Keroro grabbed him and hugged him. He just started sobbing on his shoulder as Tamama pat his back.

"There, there." Tamama said.

The words that he was someone's hero got to him. It just let all the stress and self-doubt that was building up out. He just wanted to cry and be safe with someone he trusted. _I don't...really remember saving him but...I like being consoled._ Keroro realized. Just having someone reassure him helped.

He didn't know what Tamama was talking about, but right now he needed someone with him, someone to tell him he wasn't a failure and that this wasn't his fault and he was happy to be here. He needed someone to stop the guilt. And that person was Tamama.

Momoka didn't watch Tamama deal with Keroro. She had other things to worry about. "Fuyuki...I'm really sorry about this." She said softly.

Fuyuki looked confused. "Mmsddjsd?" He tried to ask 'sorry for what?'

Momoka punched him in the gut. Hard. Momoka's punches were pretty hard after all. She might be able to break iron.

A few of the flies flew out in a wave. Enough to give Fuyuki a little more air and let him cough. It was a pretty intense punch. Fuyuki's hands dropped from his neck and onto his belly.

" _We aren't afraid of you, Nishizawa."_ They told her.

"I will squash every last one of you for harming, Fuyuki." Momoka threatened. All too late, as she hissed the flyians had their opportunity.

Her mouth was open. They flooded her body too, flying into her mouth just as they had done to Fuyuki. Momoka dropped to the ground and Fuyuki weakly grabbed her hand.

"Momocchi!" Tamama yelled.

The flyians forced Momoka to stand and turn, facing Keroro as if they held every aspect of her movement. _"Now."_ They said as if Momoka was speaking, their body her host. _"We order you to die or this one dies too, Sergeant Keroro."_

Keroro paled, his knees shaking.

Tamama shook his head. "Fukki and Momocchi wouldn't want you to do this." He said. He felt Keroro's hand tighten around his own. "Those flies are disrupting the natural life cycle and they know it. If killing a keronian was this easy they'd have done it already..." There was a waver to his voice, almost like he was lying but trying to lie for Keroro's sake. "You're stronger than this, Mr. Sergeant." He said confidentially.

Keroro gripped Tamama's hand, holding it. He looked at Tamama for a moment. "You're...You're totally right." He looked at the flies in Momoka's mouth. "Why do you want to kill me so bad, anyway? You're not acting the same towards Tamama."

The flyians were silent.

Keroro let go of Tamama's hand. His knees were no longer shaking. Tamama's words had made him feel stronger. He was strong! Tamama believed in him.

He stepped forward.

The flyians started buzzing...or shaking? Some of them left Momoka and Fuyuki's bodies to flee, desperately. They were no longer acting together.

"You're afraid of me!" Keroro realized. He absentmindedly touched the sticker on his belly, the Keron Star. _Is it because of this?_

" _N-no..."_ The flyians denied.

Keroro smiled. He walked forward. The flyians acted more and more scared the closer he got.

He might not have the Keron Star's power all of the time, but he had it some of the time. Did he even need it if they didn't know he couldn't control it? No, he just had to pretend.

He gave a sinister look and opened his mouth to say only one word. He was close to Fuyuki and Momoka now, but there was no more fear in his body, only confidence.

"Boo." He said.

All of the flyians fled in a panic. They swarmed out of Momoka and Fuyuki's mouths. It was like waves, but in seconds they were all gone, into the sky above.

Momoka and Fuyuki lay on the ground coughing and rubbing their necks. Fuyuki was shaking a considerable amount having had them in longer and just being more afraid of bugs in general.

Even after Momoka had stopped coughing, Fuyuki was gasping desperately for air. Momoka was trying to pat his back and rub it.

"Do you need some water to make sure they're all gone?" She asked.

Fuyuki shook his head. "Thanks...Thanks Momoka and Sarge." He thanked. "You saved me."

Keroro smiled. "It was nothin'." He played modest even though his knees were still shaking.

Tamama looked at the ground and rubbed his arm, blushing. "Ummm….Mr. Sergeant...I'm sorry for saying a bunch of sappy things. I was only trying to help. I don't know if it was uncalled for or if you're uncomfortable by you being my hero-" He was really red.

Keroro smiled. "It's fine. You sure snapped me out of that mess after all." He grinned, "That and we're even now, right? Because you just saved me too."

"So you mean it's okay to say sappy things like that about how much I appreciate and like you?" Tamama asked, wide-eyed.

"Of course! Why wouldn't I be okay with that?" Keroro asked. He loved his subordinates and friends praising him.

"If it's okay to say sappy things is it okay if I kiss you too?" Tamama asked, trying to be flirtatious.

"Um...What….? Did...Did you just say...Nah, I must have misheard." Keroro scratched his head, but looked skeptically at Tamama.

Tamama looked away. "What? No, I said nothing. You're definitely imagining me speaking. Because like I'm totally not gay and totally did not try to suggest kissing. It's all in your head, cuz that's totally not me suggesting weird things like that." Tamama was very bad at lying and pretending to be not gay.

Luckily enough Keroro bought it because he was totally dumb. "Yeah, I guess maybe I was imagining it. Weird. I don't know if I even heard properly what was said." Keroro just shrugged.

Tamama rubbed sweat off his head in relief.

Fuyuki finally got up. "I'm so glad to have you around, Momoka! Without you, Sarge and I would be dead meat."

"Well, we're here for you whenever you're in trouble." Momoka reassured.

"Wait, you're not going to leave are you?" Fuyuki asked, looking at the sky and where a helicopter could come from.

"Didn't Keroro want the platoon to split up and cover more ground? I want to stay with you, Fuyuki but I need to help Tamama." Momoka told him. "But if you wanted to whisk me away-"

"We're all really good friends. We should work together!" Fuyuki insisted. "Team up."

Momoka and Tamama looked at Keroro, it was up to him.

Keroro nodded. "I would love to have you. We need all the help we can get."

"Woo-hoo!" Tamama cheered.

"I hate those flies so much. I'm happy to have you around but it will be a lot nicer when those flies are gone." Fuyuki grimaced.

"So you'll be giving the flyians to Keron? Not your father?" Keroro asked.

Fuyuki nodded. "We need to trap them. After all dad said himself, us humans are their feeding source. I don't want them on Earth going down anyone else's throat." He shivered. That was a nasty feeling.

Keroro smiled. So Fuyuki was on board. But likely Haru never would be.

He had a good plan that he should have stuck to, use Haru to find the flyians. With Haru around the flies wouldn't hurt Fuyuki and now he knew one of their weaknesses.

He drifted to the back of the group while Momoka helped Fuyuki walk back home.

"Tamama..." Keroro didn't know how to ask this. "Is it okay to do bad things for good results?" _Is it okay to use Fuyuki's Dad Haru even if it's for the good of the planet? Haru has feelings too and he cares about his friends. But the planet deserves to be saved. So does the good of saving the planet outweigh the bad of lying to Haru and using him as sort of a lure for the flyians?_ "Or is doing something bad going too far?"

Tamama thought for a moment thinking of his own plan to use a person as bait- although his plan was a tad bit more violent and had more risks than hurt feelings. "It's okay to do something bad for something really good." He finally said. "Why? Is there something on your mind. You know you can tell me."

"I...I don't have something on my mind." Keroro lied. "Just...An idea. A possible plan."

"What plan?" Tamama asked, secretly hoping it was the same one.

"I...I think I'll keep it a secret." Keroro decided. "It's best that only one person has to know." Using someone's friendship seemed very cruel to him, and he didn't know if he could actually fully go through with it.

He wanted to piggyback off of Haru and get to success but Fuyuki probably wouldn't think that was the right thing. And he had friends with him who could help him for real now. Did he really need to use Haru?

"I...I have a plan to, to get the flyians away." Tamama admitted. "I'll keep mine a surprise as well though!"

Keroro nodded.

And they both reflected on their plans- both to use someone else's friendship. Keroro wishing he didn't have to do such a thing.

 _I want to be a better person._ He thought to himself. _I don't want to be just an idiot anymore using others._ He wanted to be good.

Tamama on the other hand didn't have those doubts. _I'll do as many bad things as needed and dye my hands red if it means saving this planet and keeping Mr. Sergeant. If it's for Mr. Sergeant I'll do anything._ He thought his morals were good, not realizing that they themselves were selfish.

The two of them very much were like mirrors of good and bad, one having no doubt and one having doubts and wanting to be better.

To get the flyians, how far would they go?

* * *

 **The monster mentioned by Keroro at Akina's really did turn into his dad. It was messed up. Why does nobody talk about it.**


	11. Cycle of Hatred

**Some warnings for body horror stuff involving bugs.**

 **Also in my original summary of this story Fuyuki died in this chapter. Watch as I desperately try to unwrite what was originally going to happen. And also you'll slowly see in the next chapters how Fuyuki just seems to magically 'disappear' because he wasn't supposed to be around any longer. What a story Mark.**

 **Thank you for all your reviews. It's really been helping motivate me.**

 **This chapter is the end of this specific arc. The next chapter will start up the next arc.**

 **What other fun author comments can I say? I apologize greatly for Tamama and Dororo in this story they both have a purpose to serve.**

 **Old summary because I'm trying to find a good replacement summary that explains the story a little better:** An idea. A belief, never ending. That's what a concept is. But sometimes the concept wants to be buried in the ground. If you've beaten at a concept longer than it was meant to exist, are you the villain? Or were you just made like this to try to win glory for your people? The Platoon might be in the fight of their lives as dark secrets about their planet's history is uncovered.

* * *

Although it hadn't yet been four months, Keroro decided that perhaps the best course of action was to regroup and be all together.

"You and I have already grouped up." Keroro pointed out to Tamama, "And I think we're stronger together than we were alone. So maybe splitting up wasn't the best decision."

Tamama nodded. "You're darn right that we're stronger together." Awkwardly he wondered if that meant he'd have to see Angol Mois again. He wasn't exactly sure why she wasn't with Keroro, in a way he had lucked out, but he didn't really want to see her.

So Keroro sent the signal out to all members of the Keroro Platoon. _"Calling all Keroro Platoon members, regroup at the Hinata House."_ The order was received.

It didn't take long for them to meet back at the Hinata House. A day at most. Keroro was actually surprised how fast his platoon members were.

With them were the people he expected, Natsumi, Koyuki, Saburo, and Angol Mois.

"What's the big idea calling us back early?" Giroro yelled. "We're only about three months into our mission. We could have done better!" Giroro, Keroro noticed was one of the few who looked like he had actually captured some flyians.

He had a large cage that he was holding them in. It wasn't a complete amount, but it was something.

Kululu as well had a bunch. Not the entire population by far, but it gave Keroro hope.

 _Giroro and Kululu would be the two who had actually caught some of them._ He glanced over at Dororo, who was looking disappointed. Dororo still didn't have any.

"I just thought we might do better together. Tamama and I had already joined up because going it alone did really no good. I thought that it would be best if the Keroro platoon acted as a four man-" He glanced at Dororo, "I mean five man troop!" He quickly tried to smooth things over.

Dororo glared.

A lot of the people in front of him in fact looked a little annoyed. Except Saburo. He looked relieved.

"I just have one thing to say, Keroro." Saburo took his hand and shook it, briskly. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" He looked to be on the verge of tears. "I was getting so tired of hanging around with _them _ all the time. God, it was real awful."

Keroro looked at Saburo with sympathy. _I guess even though Kululu's his best friend, even he gets tired of him._ Keroro nodded. "Don't worry. You're among friends now."

"I….I wasn't really that bad…." Kululu shrugged thinking Saburo was acting over dramatic.

"What did we do?" Angol Mois asked worriedly. It almost looked like they had broken Saburo.

"You two know what you did." Saburo gave an almost teasing hiss, looking a bit like he was being over dramatic on purpose.

And nobody knew what he was talking about.

Tamama glared at Angol Mois though. He put his arms around Keroro's. "Well me and Mr. Sergeant had a great time working together. We were super lovey-dovey." He tried to rub in her face.

Keroro gave Tamama a weird look, like that wasn't true.

Angol Mois ignored Tamama. She usually didn't get dragged down by his petty drama.

Koyuki jumped up and down, happy to see her friends. She mostly ignored Momoka and Angol Mois, but she ran over to Natsumi and flung her arms around her in a tight hug. "NATSUMI! I missed you so much! It's great to see you! How have you been? What have you been up to? Did you kill anyone? I killed a man, Natsumi-" Koyuki just chattered on and on.

Natsumi kind of pushed her away so she could breathe. Koyuki was getting intense. "Yeah, I'm happy to see you too." She agreed with her friend, only hearing about half her words.

Everybody just went up to one another, happy to be in their friend's presence for a few minutes.

Keroro cleared his throat after about 2 minutes of people trying to reconnect with each other. It wasn't that he minded, but he felt a little left out. The only one who had gone up to him and said that they missed him was Angol Mois.

Giroro, Dororo and Kululu were just standing at one edge of the room glaring at him. They still seemed slightly mad about the whole 'their lives were a lie thing' _They blame it on me._ Keroro realized.

He didn't want to be excluded from the get togethers. He'd rather do work and get to business than that. But everybody ignored his subtle throat clearing.

"Maybe...Maybe we should go over to him..." Dororo finally suggested, and sighed, giving in.

"What? Why! He's our irresponsible platoon leader. We would have never found out about any of this if we had invaded the planet." Giroro pointed out. Sure Keron hadn't thought they would or wanted them to, but they'd have to acknowledge them if they had done that. "But because of him we couldn't invade." Giroro hissed.

"Yeah." Kululu agreed. He didn't seem to be listening fully, he was just glaring. "Okay, well to be completely honest, I just don't like him in general. You're not going to see me getting all friendly with our old captain. Ku, ku, ku." He leaned against the wall. "Apparently both of my teammates have that job down pretty well. No need for me to flatter him." Kululu's voice was laced with malice as he pointed over at Saburo and Angol Mois. Saburo was fake crying and Angol Mois was smiling and talking to Keroro.

Dororo didn't comment on Saburo. He didn't know what was up with him, but he thought it was harmless. "I just mean..." He felt timid as he talked, but eventually he found his voice. "Keroro's not fully responsible for what happened to us."

"What? What do you mean, Dororo?" Giroro asked. "You know better than any of us that Keroro is responsible. Why else would his entire friend group be failures?"

Dororo shook his head. "I read my file. It wasn't his fault. And I bet in your file's it wasn't his fault either. We each bare some responsibility for what happened. And using Keroro as a scapegoat is not the responsible thing to do."

"Yeah, it's a little too much like Keroro. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu used the opportunity to mock Keroro.

Dororo glared at him. He was trying to stand up for someone here.

"We should ease up. We all bare responsibility for this incident. We're all in the same circumstance. Let's be the better person and try...Try to forgive." Dororo suggested.

Giroro was frowning, but he finally gave a reluctant nod. "If...If you say so, Dororo. You always got the blunt of Keroro's mistakes. Even more so than me. If you can forgive, I can follow your lead."

They looked at Kululu. Kululu shrugged. They probably weren't getting much better.

They all approached Keroro. Keroro smiled and crossed his arms. "You're here! The platoon is reunited!" He tried to pose like a leader.

"Yeah? So?" Giroro asked. "And what did you want us to do?"

Keroro thought for a moment. "Well...Since we've been separated for so long I think we should try to get on the same page. Please give your reports on what happened on your journeys."

They all looked at each other. Giroro blushed deeply, not really wanting to go over anything that happened. _M-mine and Natsumi's relationship is personal. They don't need to know!_

Keroro sighed after a moment. "You don't know how to give a report, do you? All right. I'll start." He took a deep breathe, ready to go over the events that had happened to him.

"Fuyuki, Admiral Papa and I all went to Fuyuki's grandma's house to look for the flyians." Keroro started up his story.

"So...Wait...We all went to different parts of the world and you just went to Natsumi's grandmother's house?" Giroro asked. He was glaring at Keroro, like that was unfair.

"Haru said that the flyians had some of his memories and would go to places they found safe. That place felt safe to them." Keroro explained. "We looked all over the place but couldn't find them. Eventually though during some spring festival some magical light show lured me into the forest. I think it was a trap by the flyians."

"They...Can summon lights?" Tamama asked. This was news to him. "How is that useful?"

Keroro shrugged. He didn't know. "Anyway, I spooked them quite a bit but they eventually...Um beat me." Keroro neglected to mention him crying a lot. "Later I followed more lights and found them again though! So they weren't lost to me very long."

"You found them again but didn't bring any back with you?" Giroro asked.

Keroro shook his head. "They tried to kill me. They took over Fuyuki by swarming him and using him as a hostage, and then eventually did the same to Momoka when she showed up to save Fuyuki." Keroro explained. "They ordered me to kill myself in return for freeing them." He glanced at Tamama, "Luckily the private saved my life, I was eventually able to see more clearly thanks to him and I realized an important fact about the flyians. They're afraid of keronians! I chased them off and me and the private were looking for them ever since."

Tamama grinned. "See?" He glared at Angol Mois. "I helped Mr. Sergeant. I'm important. You didn't."

Nobody listened to him. Instead Kululu looked thoughtful. "Afraid of keronians? Ku. They didn't seem that afraid of me when I encountered them. In fact, I didn't actually do much against them. It was Mois who squashed the giant bug they sent after us."

Everybody looked at Kululu, waiting for the information he could give. Kululu shrugged. "Saburo, Mois and I went to some pekoponian rainforest. It was rather difficult to locate the flyians but it turned out they had sent some cryptids to stalk us. Some giant snake, and a giant spider person or something. I killed the snake and Mois squashed the spider and we were easily able to capture the flyians."

Angol Mois frowned. "Umm...Actually...I don't think the giant snake had anything to do with the flyians." She confessed.

"What?" Kululu took a step back. "But it was following us." He pointed out. "And it tried to capture and eat you."

Angol Mois shook her head. "I flew into it accidentally after I split up from your group. I thought it was a bunch of vines. It...Tried to constrict me so it could eat me, but it didn't have much luck. It was trying to squash me for about a week when you happened upon it. You could say, just one big coincidence? Fine all along. Almost feel bad for the snake." Angol Mois shrugged.

Kululu just looked shocked. "You...Were being constricted for a week? I…I thought we happened upon you pretty soon."

Angol Mois waved her hands desperate to reassure Kululu. "Don't worry! I slept through most of it."

That did not make him any happier.

"A giant snake has just as many problems getting rid of her as I do." Tamama narrated to himself. "I almost feel some kinship with it. It was just laying around when that woman flew into its life and ruined it too."

"Well, it no longer has a life!" Angol Mois smiled. "Cuz Kululu killed it. He rescued me." She swooned a little, complimenting him.

"I'd...Feel a little more like I did something if you had actually been in trouble instead of just napping, you know." Kululu sighed.

Keroro just tried not to snicker. "All right, Tamama. Your report."

Tamama nodded and saluted. "I went with Momocchi to a Nishizawa meeting since I knew the flies had some connection with the Nishizawas. She taught me boring economics." Tamama groaned. "We stole Giroro's pekoponian gun-"

"Giroro has a what?" Keroro looked confused. "Does it shoot out pekoponians or...what?"

"It turns you into a pekoponian." Tamama clarified.

"W-what?" Giroro turned pink. "You must be mistaken. Also you're not allowed to take my things."

"Ku, ku, ku. He's not mistaken." Kululu teased. "And I would say the same to you. That gun rightfully belonged in the trash. It was mine but you used it for the worst possible task. To flirt with a pekoponian chick." Giroro just blushed harder and harder.

Tamama glared. "Quiet! Quiet. Let me finish my story. Turns out the Nishizawa board members were martial artist and I entered a cool martial arts tournament."  
"Where is this story going?" Keroro asked.

"I met a guy who had a bunch of flyians in his body. It turns out the flyians offer a lot of power in return for killing someone faster. With so many flies this guy was super tough. But don't worry. I beat him all on my own." Tamama lied and boasted a giant grin on his face as he took credit for Momoka's accomplishments.

"Where are the flyians then?" Giroro asked.

"Uhhhh they got away." Tamama replied. "It has nothing to do with me! Don't blame me."

Everybody looked at him suspiciously.

"Well...I think I'll go next with my report since I don't want you forgetting about me." Dororo decided. "Lady Koyuki and I went to her old ninja village to discover what her connection to the flyians were. We did not encounter any of the flyians although we did find one of her old friend's. I...I won't go into what happened. He did try to capture us, but...It's not my story to tell." Dororo looked very sad. "We learned afterwards from the old chief that Koyuki is five hundred."

"What?" Giroro asked.

"She barely looks it! Wow, she's looking super good for her age." Keroro complimented.

Dororo shook his head. "Pekoponians are naturally supposed to live to 40,000. The flyians however have been eating their lifespan so they only live 90 years. Koyuki's clan had a mutual agreement with the flyians to be untouched so she had the natural lifespan of a pekoponian. That was why she stayed in the forest for so long, the ninjas were trying to conceal this." Dororo explained.

"Knew it! Knew pekoponians were supposed to live longer! And Haru tried to make me stop talking about it. Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu cursed.

Everybody's eyes widened at the information Dororo had gotten. It was important.

They looked at Giroro, hopefully that he also had good information. "Uhh...They can give power to creatures they possess in return for something. I assume lifespan...Natsumi and I fought a yeti and almost died in a snowstorm. That's all." He very much tried to blot out most of his adventure.

Tamama narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Is that really all?"

"Yup." Giroro nodded in a hurry.

"Ku, ku, ku. And how much did you and Natsumi smooch?" Kululu teased, already guessing what Giroro was in so much of a hurry to hide.

Giroro turned a deeper red. "None! How dare you suggest something like that! I don't even have feelings for Natsumi! We're not dating! I don't know what you're talking about! Natsumi who?"

"You're dating?" Keroro just looked at him in shock. "Wow. That's even more surprising than Koyuki being five hundred."

Everybody nodded in agreement.

"W-what? It's..It's not that surprising is it? Not that unlikely? We'll stay together right?" Giroro asked worriedly.

Everybody stared at him. "It's surprising." They all said bluntly.

"Ku, ku, ku. We never thought Natsumi would return your feelings. We thought she had standards. Guess I was wrong. But you know, I can acknowledge when I've been wrong. Guess she didn't have standards after all." Kululu shrugged.

Giroro punched him. It was all back to normal.

Keroro ignored their antics. "This is good though! We're all on the same page now. And I'm very excited to save Pekopon! I believe in us. We can do this. We've done so much together! We're the best of friends. The Keroro platoon!"

Giroro stopped punching for a moment. He smiled to himself. _If there's one thing that changes a bad situation it's Keroro's enthusiasm. It's oddly always got this inspiring quality to it._

Haru looked over worriedly towards the frogs. He hadn't been invited to their small little meeting, but he could hear them being in the same room. And he was eavesdropping something fierce. _I want to free my friends. I don't want them to be caught by the keronians._ He had to buy time. "Hey. I have an idea." He spoke up.

Everybody looked at him.

"You've all been away from your friend's for a while, right?" Haru asked. "And friendship is important. Why don't you celebrate your reunion with a barbecue or something. We're on the path to progress." He looked worriedly at Kululu and Giroro's cages full of flyians.

"I agree with Haru!" Aki smiled and clapped. "You all aren't failures. You're citizens of Earth. And you deserve to celebrate your progress. You need to relax so you can work even harder later." She was on board with a party.

Keroro smiled. "You heard that platoon? Relax now, because after tonight we're going to work even harder. We'll succeed for pekopon's sake!"

They all nodded. They could get on board with this.

* * *

Aki and Haru had volunteered to set up most of the barbecue so that everyone could have time to reunite.

Natsumi hurriedly pulled Koyuki along to their other friends that she missed, Momoka and Angol Mois. All four of them embraced each other.

"I missed you guys. I mean going hardcore survivalist in the mountains and almost dying from hypothermia is fun, don't get me wrong, but hanging out with my other female friends is also nice. I missed companionship from other girls." Natsumi admitted.

"I missed you too!" Angol Mois agreed.

"I missed everyone a lot, but I had to be there for Tamama, you know." Momoka nodded. "….You almost died? Did...Everybody have such an intense journey?"

"Well, I didn't almost die. I was doing pretty well actually. Giroro chose to go to the Himalayas because he was stupid. Picked a location that was the absolute worst for him." Natsumi admitted.

"So did Kululu!" Angol Mois smiled. "He picked a place with no technology. I guess Giroro and Kululu both picked bad places. Maybe they understand what the other is going through-"  
"Please don't compare Giroro and Kululu. Giroro's better than that." Natsumi frowned.

Angol Mois was about to defend Kululu when Koyuki got in between them to stop an argument that might happen.

"So what was the worst part of our trips?" She asked.

Natsumi was taken aback. "Worst?" She thought for a moment. "Probably Giroro almost dying. It really worried me how cold he would get. Physically. I thought he might die and it scared me."

Momoka nodded. "I understand being worried for a friend. Paul got a hand stuck through the chest."  
"Giroro's...Umm...He's actually my boyfriend now." Natsumi admitted. "Please don't compare him to Paul either."

"O-oh! Congratulations!" Momoka clapped. "I never thought a Hinata sibling would stop being dense."

Natsumi narrowed her eyes. "What does that mean?"

"My worst moment was when I killed a man." Koyuki interrupted. Yet again nobody heard her. Apparently Dororo's forgetablity had rubbed off on her.

Everybody instead turned to Angol Mois, waiting for her worst moment.

"Kululu yelled at me and asked me to leave." Angol Mois rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Then I got mad and stupidly left."

"Umm...Isn't that just everyday Kululu stuff? And isn't that not your fault?" Natsumi reassured. "Is that really your worst moment? Wasn't there anything worse that happened to you?"

"Umm...I was really worried about Kululu. I mean he almost died like multiple times too. But that's really something to do with Kululu, not me. I guess Kululu embarrassed me in front of Saburo. Does that count?" Angol Mois was trying to suggest things. "Although… I guess it wasn't really a bad thing. It wasn't the worst. The leeches was definitely a lot worse…."

"That's just average Kululu stuff!" Natsumi pointed out. "...What did he do to embarrass you?"

Angol Mois covered her mouth. "Not important." She was blushing a bit. "Ummmm…I gotta go." And then she ran out of the conversation.

"Is anybody going to ask me about the man I killed?" Koyuki asked.

Nobody did.

* * *

Giroro tried not to approach Keroro. He felt awkward around him. He knew Haru was pouring drinks and serving up some meats, and Keroro was happily chattering but despite what Dororo said, he still felt awkward.

"You avoiding the stupid frog?" Natsumi asked.

Giroro rubbed his arm. So she had noticed. "I...I don't know what to say to him. Or if I want to say anything to him. Does he really have nothing to do with this?"

"You should probably talk to your friend, Giroro." Natsumi advised. "I know the stupid frog is tough to deal with sometimes but he's probably struggling as much as you are."

Giroro looked at his feet. "I don't know if I can. I just feel like he's a reminder of the whole military thing and what they did to us."

Natsumi kissed him. "Will that get you to do it?" She knew it would. Giroro was already melting.

"U-um...Uhh yeah...Anything you want, babe." He had forgotten what he was being awkward about.

Natsumi giggled a bit.

Fuyuki locked on to what was happening. He rushed over and squealed. "Did...Did you just kiss Giroro? Like...On the lips?"

"Yeah….So?" Natsumi asked. "Why are you being so weird about it?"

Fuyuki just jumped up and down. "Because you kissed an alien! Oh my god. Is it finally happening? Are you dating? Does...Does this mean what I think it means? Alien brother-in-law? Alien nieces and nephews?" He looked so excited.

The excitement was intimidating to Natsumi and creeping her out. "Fuyuki. Um...Take a step back and cool down. You're...Kind of creeping me out, bro."

"Giroro! You're finally going to be my brother!" Fuyuki just assumed Natsumi was going to marry Giroro.

"Y-yeah. I g-guess so." Giroro nodded.

Natsumi groaned. Why were people so stupid and weird around her?

Aki walked over. "Did I hear that Giroro finally worked up the courage to ask Natsumi out?"

"What do you mean ' _finally?_ '" Both Giroro and Natsumi said at the same time.

Aki ignored them. "Well, that's fantastic. Giroro is a stand up, fine guy." She smiled. "As long as he abides by a few simple rules at least."

Giroro saw Aki snap her knuckles.

"I'm prepared to abide by whatever rules and structure you're planning for your daughter." Giroro tried to be gentlemanly.

Aki nodded. "No knocking her up. My daughter's going to college and you will be appropriate. I don't care if you're living in our backyard, that ain't happening under my roof. Got it?"

Giroro saluted. "Yes Sir!"

"You will die a painful death if you make Natsumi pregnant before she graduates college. You will die a painful death if you somehow break her heart by putting your duties before her. That is all." Aki ordered.

Giroro nodded. "I would never put my planet above Natsumi again. She is so much more than that." He was taking this very seriously, like he was signing up for a mission. He was taking it much too seriously. "You can court martial me if I do something wrong, but I will be the perfect soldier- I mean boyfriend."

Aki smiled. They had an understanding then. They shook hands.

"My family is weird. My boyfriend is weird. I'm surrounded by weird." Natsumi looked at her hands. "Am I weird?"

"Natsumi, babe. You are a warrior woman who loves fighting. What's weird about that?" Giroro asked.

"I'm weird." Natsumi realized.

* * *

Dororo kept mostly to himself. And Koyuki of course. But his mind was occupied thinking about the cages Giroro and Kululu had brought back with the flyians.

 _It isn't right to let Keron eat them. Sure the flyians did some wrong things, but it will just start the cycle of hatred and predator and prey again._ Not only that but Keron would be able to invade more planets and would become a greater civilization, they would advance and probably start treating other beings as less than them.

Dororo had been part of the higher society. He knew that was what it was like. He knew he couldn't let that happen.

He had to free the flyians. Had to release them all once they had them. Had to stop this cycle.

But he knew his friends would not agree with him. That they thought the flyians were down right evil. _So I'm on my own._

"Is something wrong?" Koyuki asked, noticing how quiet he was.

Dororo looked at her. _Should I tell her? I trust Koyuki. She's my partner. She would talk to me and tell me if my idea was a good one or bad one, honestly._ Dororo thought. But for some reason his mouth wouldn't move.

He didn't want to tell her. Not because he didn't trust her but because he trusted her too much. He knew she would agree with him and help him with his plan to betray his platoon mates. And if his platoon mates ever found out he didn't want Koyuki to be blamed for his mistakes.

He didn't want her dragged down. He wanted her to be safe and to not be ostracized by her close friends like Natsumi.

"No. Everything's fine." Dororo lied. He told Koyuki nothing. In time he would tell her, but not now.

 _Support me in your thoughts. But this has to be my mission alone, Koyuki. I'm sorry._ Dororo apologized.

* * *

Kululu watched Giroro talk to Natsumi closely. Eventually after Giroro had moved towards Keroro and talked to him, he approached.

"Will you really just forgive him like that? You'll forgive him that quickly for dragging the entire platoon down?" Kululu was miffed but more than anything surprised. _I thought Giroro might have more pride than that._ "You'll forgive him so quickly just because your girlfriend told you to? Ku, ku, ku?"

Giroro's face scrunched in irritation for a second, but he tried to cool down. "You should give Keroro a chance too." He suggested. "Natsumi would probably be happy. She's noticed that we're both kind of avoiding him."

"And I would care about Natsumi's feelings why?" Kululu inspected his fingers and scoffed. "I'm not you. Just because you want me to do something for Natsumi's oh so precious happiness doesn't mean I will."

Giroro rubbed his forehead. Kululu was a headache. He had not been displeased to be away from him.

"Ku, ku, ku. I just don't understand what you're doing. I agree with you that Keroro's at fault for a lot of this. Well, okay so he might not fully be at fault, but we shouldn't just embrace him like he's not an idiot." Kululu pointed out. "You were doing the right thing to ignore him. Why stop that?"

"It's like Dororo said we all bare some responsibility- Heck I bet you got put on the military for being a jerk to the higher ups or some crap like that. So you really have no right to complain." Giroro pointed out.

Kululu crossed his arms and glared. He wasn't going to confirm or deny that. "Sure, we're all failures in our own way, but I'll never forgive Keroro for dragging us down even more. We wouldn't have had to deal with this lie so long if he wasn't ruining things all the time. And he'll probably screw up about these flyians too. Release the cages you and I caught or something. Ku, ku, ku. He's a downright idiot. Are you going to ignore that?" Kululu sounded like he was just mad at Keroro and was looking for something to blame on him.

Giroro nodded. "Natsumi wants me to make peace. And...I'm going to try for her sake."

"Pathetic." Kululu replied.

Giroro was silent for a moment. Kululu's mockery always brought him down, but he was kind of curious. "Were...You asked to stop avoiding Keroro too?" He finally asked. "To forgive him?"

"By Natsumi? Nope." Kululu shook his head.

 _He's made snide, hateful comments about Keroro ever since getting back. I bet he's bitter because he was asked to forgive him too._ Giroro realized. Kululu definitely had some issues with Keroro that had nothing to do with being exiled or the invasion. And Giroro could probably pinpoint those issues coming from one annoyance that he had been stuck with for three months and liked to talk non-stop about how amazing Keroro was.

Honestly, if Giroro had to listen about how great Keroro was he might have been more annoyed with him too. He hated being able to understand Kululu.

"I guess I was wrong about you having some sort of soldier's pride. Oops. Forgot you weren't a soldier anymore." Kululu mocked again. "You're only some lovesick fool following that pekoponian girl's every command and order."

"Don't mock me for doing something just because Natsumi asked me to." Giroro frowned. "You'd obey a girl too. Although you obeying someone is much sadder since instead of being out of love it's out of fear." Even if he understood Kululu's annoyance he was done with being insulted. "You're afraid that Mois's going to terrify you into talking to Keroro too."

Kululu didn't look that caught off guard by the accusation. He shook his head. "Mois's different than Natsumi." He finally said. "Sure, she could do that and she knows it. But she'd never exploit her powers like that when she knows I wouldn't like it. Because what makes her so scary is she's a good person."

Giroro frowned. That was...Surprisingly insightful and trusting of Mois.

Kululu turned away and sighed. "I guess the dream come true of not hearing about Keroro for a while is over though. Couldn't last forever. God, she talks about Keroro so much. I'm sure it'll start up against soon." True fear was in his voice.

Giroro actually pitied him. "I'll...I'll try to talk to Keroro honestly about being an idiot and dragging us down a bit after this whole flyian thing is over and done with. Right now he's surprisingly motivated and wants to save Pekopon. I don't want to ruin that."

Kululu glanced over. "So you're still mad?"

"I can't not be." Giroro admitted. "He squashed our dreams of invasion."

"So did you." Kululu pointed out. "I was the only competent one here. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu bragged.

Giroro left. He was done talking to Kululu because all conversation with Kululu was bad. He really should have learned that sooner.

* * *

Lots of things were going on during the barbecue. Momoka was flirting with Fuyuki and talking to him. People were speaking to one another and smiling.

Momoka was challenging Tamama to limbo and losing badly since Tamama was short. But Keroro's mind wasn't on any of the images around him.

Instead he was watching Haru closely. He could see Haru glancing at the cages with the flyians every now and then.

 _Now is the best chance I have._ Keroro realized. _Everybody is distracted by partying. Including Haru._ He couldn't afford to waste time. Pekopon was in trouble.

He needed to exploit Haru somehow to find out where the other flyians were. And Keroro was already coming up with a plan. He could tell that Haru had his own plans to sneak off somehow and free the flyians. It was easy to tell that that was why he had suggested the party. Nobody else was paying attention to the pink haired man, they were too busy trusting Haru or being mad at Keroro.

Keroro was the only one who was focused. _I need to gain his trust. If I give him the flyians we already have we both can sneak off to free them. Their friends will come out to help them and Haru and I'll catch all of them._ Keroro decided.

He felt bad pretending to be on Haru's side. Haru would surely be hurt. Although he knew Haru was doing something wrong he still felt bad because Haru was Fuyuki's father.

Keroro watched Haru, wondering when was the best time to offer to pretend give the flyians to Haru, and talk him into sneaking off with him. He was about to get up when Tamama blocked his path.

"Hello, Mr. Sergeant!" Tamama smiled, unaware that Keroro was having any dramatic plots.

Keroro frowned. _I can't let him see what I'm doing. I don't want him to think badly of me for conning someone and exploiting friendship. Friendship is precious to Fuyuki and Tamama after all._

"H-hello. I as going to go get a drink and uhh I probably have to go." Keroro tried to move around Tamama.

Tamama didn't notice that Keroro was trying to leave. "So what's a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?" He was trying to do a bad pick up line.

"Having a party?" Keroro replied rather confused. He knew he was pretty but what was Tamama talking about.

"Ha ha ha." Tamama laughed awkwardly. This flirting was not going very well. "Umm...So listen, Giroro and Kululu are going to put on a firework show in a few minutes. I was...I was wondering if you'd watch it with me?" He tried to ask Keroro out. He didn't know if he was being clear enough. He could always back out if Keroro was creeped out.

"I would love to, but I promised I'd do something with Haru." Keroro lied, keeping his eyes on Haru and continuously trying to walk around Tamama.

Tamama frowned and sighed. "Are...Are you trying to avoid me? Are you going off to hang out with that woman in private where I can't see?" Tamama asked paranoid.  
"What? No. I'm not trying to avoid you." Keroro denied. "I really appreciate your company, Private. You really helped me out on my journey and I was glad to have you there."

Tamama smiled and squealed a bit. "Well you know...I'll help you in whatever way I can." He giggled a little to himself. He was quiet for a moment, but then he said very seriously, "I'll do whatever I can to you, or so you don't have to do difficult things yourself."

Keroro didn't know what Tamama was talking about. _Is he in some sort of trouble with the law?_

All of a sudden Tamama scooted closer to Keroro and leaned his head against his shoulder. "Hey, Mr. Sergeant? Can I ask you something?"

"S-sure." Keroro wasn't sure why Tamama was acting so weird. But something must have been on Tamama's mind.

"Why did you choose to save me? You could have been at so many other battles that day. You could have left me. You could have saved other soldiers. Or you could have not worked as hard as you did to save me. You could have not carried me back to the medical bay for my wounds to be treated. So why did you save me? What made you choose me to work so hard to save?" It was something that had been on Tamama's mind for a while.

Keroro just looked confused. _I...I still don't remember saving Tamama. What do I say? I don't even know what he's talking about._ He knew Tamama had mentioned it before that Keroro had somehow heroically saved him, but he was under the impression that most of his heroic antics were exaggerated by mostly him or the media.

He didn't know how to answer the question. But because he cared about Tamama so much he tried to remember or look deep inside his soul for some sort of answer that would satisfy him. He was quiet for a good moment trying to think of an answer.

Finally he heard his own voice speak out. "Because I wanted something that was just mine. A precious memory to always have when I was sad." As soon as the words were blurted out, Keroro felt confusion.

He hadn't known that he would say that. Had it just been on the spur of the moment? And how could he use that as his answer when he didn't remember this supposed very precious event? It was the worst lie he could ever come up with.

 _Where did that answer come from?_ Keroro wondered. _What precious memory? This memory is precious to Tamama when he's sad. Not to me._

He stopped being lost in thought when he saw Tamama's large smile. Tamama's eyes were watering. That was probably the exact answer he wanted. "It's that precious to you? You wanted us to be just yours?"

"I think I meant you. Not us." Keroro corrected gently.

"Awww,,," Tamama blushed. "You wanted me." He was sniffling a little bit and holding Keroro's hand. Keroro smiled a bit in response. He was glad that Tamama was happy with his answer. Although it still didn't make much sense to him. He hoped Tamama didn't ask him any more specifics on that event. Maybe it was just his normal bad memory though. Sometimes he didn't even remember that he had three best friends in childhood. He only remembered Giroro and Pururu and sometimes it was only Giroro!

"You...You know...I want you too..." Tamama shuffled his feet on the ground and blushed a lot.

Keroro didn't respond. _I really don't know what Tamama's talking about. I lost him around the beginning of this conversation. It's confusing me._ Keroro just continued to stare at him.

"Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I was a girl." Tamama continued talking, "Would you treat me a whole lot differently?"

"I'd probably treat you like Mois." Keroro laughed.

Tamama immediately started crying. That was not the answer he wanted. _I already want you to treat me like that woman. So it's really hopeless just because I'm a dude. You would treat me different!_

"W-what did I say?" Keroro asked.

"You would treat me differently. You were supposed to say that you liked me just the way I am. I can't believe that woman beat me again!" Tamama yelled.

 _What's this about? Is he okay? What did I say?_ Keroro wondered. He was super confused. But Keroro realized he'd probably be confused about a lot of things for the rest of his life. He just accepted his confusion.

"Well then….Don't worry about what ifs. I like you the way you are. Male. Just remember, you'll always be my darling platoon mate." Keroro tried to reassure.

Tamama wiped away his tears. He nodded. Keroro was trying. He was trying to reassure him. _Should I tell him why I'm upset? Should I tell him about my feelings?_ He opened his mouth. This was the time. A dramatic party, Keroro telling him he wanted him.

What better time then this?

Keroro looked over Tamama's shoulder. Haru was beginning to leave. "I'm sorry. I have to go." He said quickly before Tamama could confess.

"W-what? Why?" Tamama asked. But it was too late. Keroro left Tamama to go follow Haru.

And Tamama's chance to confess was gone.

* * *

Keroro followed Haru to the back of the house, where the cages were being kept.

 _Okay. Remember the plan. Give him the cages, it will gain his trust. Tell him to release them away from here and watch him do it. Their friends will come to help him and Haru, catch all the flyians._ Keroro repeated to himself over and over again.

"Hey, Haru, nice weather today, huh?" Keroro waved. Walking over to him.

Haru jumped up a bit, near the cages. He hadn't expected Keroro to catch him. "Keroro. I was...I was just checking on them. They're screaming."

"I know what you were going to do." Keroro narrowed his eyes. "You were going to free them." He picked up a cage. "But you're going about it the wrong way. It should be away from here so they don't caught again."

"You're helping me?" Haru asked.

"Of course! Your Fuyuki's father. And Fuyuki's dad deserves happiness." Keroro had his fingers crossed behind his back. He could see Haru's eyes opening as he saw Haru giving him his complete trust.

"I...I was wrong about you, Keroro." Haru knelt down. "I….I thought you would want to give the flyians to Keron. But that doesn't make any sense. Out of everyone you would be the one most against it. Fuyuki was right to trust you."

Keroro picked up an empty cage while Haru talked. He didn't know what Haru was talking about but he was glad to have his trust. "So….Will the others come to help their friends?"

"Yeah. They're all planning to regroup with me to free them." Haru didn't see the empty cage.

"I can come with you. I want to apologize. And we'll be sneaking off together away from the party, right?" Keroro suggested.

Haru nodded.

Keroro picked up a cage with the flyians. He was going to give it to Haru. _The plan's working perfectly. You have to do this. He trusts you completely._

He looked at Haru's eyes. They were the same eyes as Fuyuki. Could he really exploit his trust like this? He imagined the moment when he caught all of the flyians. When Haru realized his friends were all dead thanks to placing his trust in the wrong person.

Keroro's lip quivered. His hands shook. This wasn't just any pekoponian. It was Fuyuki's father.

"I...I can't." He couldn't do it. He chickened out. The perfect plan and he couldn't go through with it.

"What do you mean? You want Keron to advance through their own hard work, right? Not because they're addicted to some other creature." Haru just stared at him confused.

"I….I wasn't going to let you fully free them. I was going to trick you, and capture them all. I was going to use your friendship to lure them out." Keroro confessed. "But I don't want to be that sort of person who uses the merits of friendship against people. I...I don't want to be the Keroro of back then anymore! I've manipulated enough people in my lifetime already." Keroro was on the verges of tears now. He just couldn't do it. "I can't use your trust. It would have worked but I can't do it."

He could already imagine Fuyuki scolding him.

"Sarge!" He heard Fuyuki's voice as Fuyuki ran around the corner. Natsumi was following him along with Tamama and the rest of the platoon.

"What are you doing here?" Haru asked.

"Tamama saw Keroro sneak off. He was worried and alerted us." Natsumi crossed her arms. "You were going to free them, dad? I worked hard for those flies! And so did Giroro!"

Fuyuki frowned. "We...We heard everything." He glared. "I...I can't believe you would use friendship that way, sarge. Is that why you fixed dad's and my relationship? To use it?" Fuyuki asked. "In a way that's exploiting me. You're making him trust you because you were my friend."

"I...I know...I did a lot of bad things..." Haru and Fuyuki were the only ones really looking down on him in some way. Exploiting someone's trust was rather low. Natsumi was just mad at her father though. Keroro covered his head. He didn't want anyone to kick him.

Fuyuki was the only one besides Haru that was visibly horrified. His anger subsided though. "You...You chose me in the end though. Our friendship over doing something risky. You...You did the right thing and realized your mistakes. So I can't be that mad at you." Fuyuki reached out to Keroro, letting Keroro take his hand. "Using someone's trust isn't the right way to win. That's the villain's way."

Keroro nodded. "You're right. In generic shonen anime only villains use that tactic." He paused. "I couldn't go through with it."

"Fuyuki! I really think it was Haru who did the wrong thing. We shouldn't be focusing on the stupid frog's plot and if it was dumb or not." Natsumi scolded.

Fuyuki glanced at Haru. "You kinda exploited me too. She's right."

Haru looked sheepish.

Everybody was talking about their own take on the matter about exploiting someone's trust. Tamama however was focusing on Keroro and in his own world. _Mr. Sergeant was going to use Haru. Just like I was going to use that woman. Except probably with less risk of death involved._ Tamama was also using trust and a deal to his benefit. Not friendship, but something.

 _Mr. Sergeant's too good to use someone though. He's...He's nothing like me. He's not as bad._ And that was okay. It was something Tamama liked about Keroro.

 _Don't worry Mr. Sergeant. Now that your plan has failed, I'll fix it. I'll be the bad guy and bad one for the both of us._ He had to do the wrong thing. He had to be bad. He would dye his hands red if it meant Keroro didn't have to. He didn't want Keroro to have to do something evil.

 _I know I'm also doing it out of my own selfishness though. I want to get rid of that woman after all. If Mr. Sergeant ever knew how bad of a person I was, he would never like me. He'd hate me._

He knew bad things were going to happen to Mois. It was inevitable with his plan. And there was a dark part of him that wanted that to happen. The nicest part of him just didn't care. He was terrified of his own evil and inability to care about what he was planning. A normal person would care more. But he wasn't caring.

The plan was simple. Lure Mois out alone and give her to the flyians. Exploit her trust like Keroro had tried with Haru. However instead of her feelings just being hurt it was likely that they'd either destroy her or devour her body. During that time Tamama would use the opportunity of distraction to capture them.

It was extremely likely that Mois would not live. But he would get the flyians. Keroro and him would save Pekopon.

 _Sometimes...You have to make difficult decisions. Sacrifice one for the many. Just because this is an easier decision for me than others because I don't like her doesn't mean it's less heavy._ Tamama decided.

And so he moved away from Fuyuki and Keroro. He went off to go find Mois.

* * *

Angol Mois was leaning against a wall of the Hinata House dozing off. Tamama bounded over to her.

"Hey!" Tamama tried to look innocent. "I was wondering if you could help me with something. There's a box filled with party supplies that's too big for me to move. My arms are tiny and I was wondering if you could do the heavy lifting."

Angol Mois woke up. "You want me to do the heavy lifting?" She glanced at him. "I always kind of thought you were stronger than me. You could say, tough martial artist?"

Tamama smiled. "Well, maybe I just wanted to give you the opportunity to do things! You love doing crap for people right? I mean, you really like doing pointless tasks to help people? So I'm trying to be nice and give you one."

Angol Mois frowned. That's not exactly the way she would phrase it. "That...Doesn't sound very nice."

"Do you want to help me or not?" Tamama glared. _Pretending to be friendly is hard. I don't know how long I can keep it up._

"I want to help! I'm always up for any opportunity to form a better relationship with you, Tamama! You could say, new friendship forming?" Angol Mois smiled.

 _God she grates on my nerves._ Tamama smiled. "Yeah, new friendship!" The words made him feel guilty.

But he had to do this for Keroro. It was their opportunity. The planet's opportunity. And he was sure the flyians were watching somewhere. They had chosen him because they knew he would do it. But they didn't know he'd betray them at the last minute.

"Follow me." Tamama instructed. He led Angol Mois away from the party.

She hummed and followed along cheerily, as the two walked and walked a fair distance away from the Hinata House.

She started getting a little confused, but still unsuspecting once they got to a generally underpopulated area. Some sort of grassy hill. "This is really far away for a place to pick up a box." She frowned.

The hill was illuminated by moonlight. Tamama stood in the middle of it and sighed. This was the place. It was time.

He looked at Angol Mois one last time. _I guess she deserves to have someone look at her one last time...I'll probably be the last one to see her._ Was this murder? Or just assisted murder?

He didn't want to be a murderer. He was scared. But he had to do it. Tamama had to capture those flies for Keroro. For Pekopon.

 _I can't afford to have any guilt for that woman at the last moment. I have to remember everything bad about her so I can go through with this._ Tamama reminded himself.

"What's in the box anyway? Why are these party supplies so important?" Angol Mois smiled and peered over his shoulder.

Tamama looked up at the moon. He didn't fully answer her. Instead he hit the back of her legs and tied a rope around them so she couldn't get away. He just ignored her confusion. "I brought her." He said simply. "Come out. You're around, right? You've been following me or something."

"Who are you talking to, Tamama-?" Angol Mois was cut off as the moonlight faded away. The moon seemed to turn black as a swarm of flies covered the sky.

It was all of them. The entire population that had come to Pekopon, just as Tamama had suspected. They had all gathered together. And the sky was thick with the mass of bugs because of it.

" _Thank you."_ They told Tamama.

"Just doing my job..." Tamama laughed nervously. He hoped the flyians believed him.

The mass of flies seemed to get closer direct towards Mois. _"Killing you will bring us no sustenance. But we must do it anyway, to save our home."_

Mois's eyes widened. "Tamama-!"

Tamama just brought out another rope. He needed Angol Mois to stay put while he captured the flyians with the special cages he had hidden in the area. He tied up her hands. As she struggled against Tamama, her phone dropped to the ground snapping a quick picture of the flyians. The flyians buzzed from the flash but ignored it not thinking too much about it.

Tamama didn't say anything to Mois. There was no apology that he could utter. He didn't want to talk. He just moved away once her hands were tied up.

The flyians descended on her. It was like a swarm of a massive wave. Tamama was desperately moving away to behind a bush to grab the cages he had set up for this event, but he still saw some of it. And it was an image that would haunt him until his dying days.

The flyians tried to nuzzle into her flesh, eating it and ripping off pieces with their tiny flyian mouths. Mois screamed and struggled, eventually ripping off the ropes that Tamama had bound her with.

" _You will not get away."_ The flyians spoke. Suddenly pieces of the sky became clear again as many of the flies grouped together into a shape- chains. They bound her wrists and ankles with black, fly like chains, cursing her to the ground instead of letting her fly off. The rest of them tried to fight against her and eat at her.

Tamama hurriedly grabbed some of the cages and ran over. He winced as he saw yet again what was happening to Mois. The eating was progressing, but unlike what would happen to a normal person she wasn't becoming a skeleton. Instead her existence itself seemed to just glitch out. The pieces of her facade, her blonde hair, her clothing changes appearance in pixels of all the different other forms she had taken throughout her life. It was as if they were eating her energy, erasing who she was.

 _This...This kind of death might be too horrifying even for her._ Tamama felt nauseous. But he had the cages now. The flyians were in front of him. He could stop this.

Her role had been fulfilled.

"Hey! Stop that!" Tamama yelled, trying to grab one flyian with his fist to shove into a cage. His voice might not have been heard over Angol Mois's loud ear shattering screams.

The flyian avoided his fist and flew above him. Suddenly the flyians eating Angol Mois stopped. The ones chaining her still kept in their position but the other half turned to Tamama.

"Uh-oh." _Guess that's what happens when I try to do something good and go back on what I did._ Tamama stood strong. He was stronger than them. He believed in himself.

 _"Oh Tamama! We wanted to thank you again."_ The flyians spoke with fondness. _"Thank you for being a creature of pure predictable selfishness. We knew the premise of getting rid of your rival was a strong one. You're just like any other keronian."_ They laughed.

"What?" Tamama asked. He thought they trusted him. Was he the one who was tricked and used? Not the other way around? "I'm not just like any other keronian! I'm the keronian who's going to capture you!" He ran forward with his cage.

The flyians just dodged and buzzed in a way that symbolized mocking laughter. _"You're right. You aren't like other keronians. We sense that you're extremely unstable."_

"So? Unstable can be a good thing. It's why I can do this. TAMAMA IMPACT!" Tamama yelled shooting for one of the chains.

Some of the flyians got obliterated. But more took their place. They hadn't moved because it would risk releasing Angol Mois, who was a much more terrifying monster than Tamama.

The flyians didn't seem amused anymore that some of their friends had been killed by Tamama. _"Unstable is not a good thing. Truth is if you captured us and keron had us...If you ever ate one of us you'd probably be one of the keronians who couldn't handle the power. You'd die painfully if you ate one of us"_ They told him,

"Keronians don't die from eating flyians! We were meant to eat you!" Tamama yelled, calling out the lie.

" _They didn't use to die. But due to being away from our race for generations, you've developed imperfections….Genetic deformities. A lot of you wouldn't be able to deal with the power and would die. Your body would dissolve, every particle of your body would explode. Perhaps you'd go through something like this girl is going through."_ They mocked. _"You are definitely one of the ones who would die. And thus you are less than an ant to one of these pekoponians to us."_ Suddenly the flyians formed a new shape. A giant hand.

Before Tamama could roll away or dodge the giant hand went down upon him, squishing him against the ground. It made his head pound with blood loss, and pain. He couldn't breathe. It hit him again and again until his head was spinning and he realized he was about to lose consciousness.

It had squashed him. He really was nothing compared to the flyians.

" _We weren't meant for you, tiny one. You are just an ant."_ They told him and squashed him one last time.

Tamama was bleeding on the ground. He looked desperately at Angol Mois. "Kero ro. M o " He tried to gasp out the words, "I'm sorry". He regretted his plan. He regretted the screams. But it was too late. He couldn't say he was sorry. _I'm sorry, Mr. Sergeant. I'm sorry that woman._

They would both die here at this rate. And that wasn't right. It was supposed to be that one of them would live to be with Keroro.

 _I should have accepted that woman and Mr. Sergeant's love. True I might have had Mr. Sergeant's attention by default if she was dead, but he wouldn't want me and he would have hated me. If I hadn't been so jealous none of this would have happened._ He gasped and coughed up blood. _The flyians are right. I am unstable._

And he was out. He closed his eyes as the flyians went back to their true prey.

* * *

When Angol Mois's phone had hit the ground and snapped a picture it had immediately sent it accidentally to the last person she texted.

"Hold up now," Kululu stopped Giroro from lighting his specially made fireworks for everyone. "I just got a text. Probably Mois. I wonder where she wandered off to. Ku, ku, ku." He flipped open his phone and glanced at it.

On the screen was a picture of a swarm of flyians in the air. Little tiny flyians were biting into what was clearly Angol Mois's ankle from the angle it was at.

Kululu's face turned pale. His hands were shaking "I...I think Mois is in trouble." He was trying to process his thoughts, get everything in order. "Mois's found the flyians. They appear to be attacking her. We need to go there. NOW." Kululu was not going to sugar coat the information he had.

"What?" Giroro asked. "Why do you think that?"

Kululu handed him his phone. Everybody else in the group looked worried.

"Whoa, whoa. Maybe we should slow down, think up a plan of action, figure out how to find Mois- How do you know she's fully in trouble?" Keroro pointed out.

"I have a device that can locate her. We can find her in a matter of minutes." Kululu said quickly. "And it's clear from this picture she's in trouble. If she didn't send a text afterwards about it she clearly no longer has access to her phone to correct things."

"But, we need a plan-This is all going so fast-" Keroro was sweating.

"I've got a plan." Kululu threw his phone down on the ground and pressed a button, to spin down to his lab and grab some things. He was back in mere seconds. "Go to Mois. Save Mois. Take out the flyians. Simple. Ku, ku, ku." There was a little bit of panic in his voice. Clearly not the most thought out plan.

"Awww...Are you freaking out?" Saburo tried to tease a little bit. "See? You do care about her-"

Kululu narrowed his eyes. "Shut up, Saburo. I don't have time for this. None of us have any time for this. I'm not going to lose her."  
Saburo silenced himself.

Dororo picked up Kululu's phone to examine it. His eyes were better than Kululu's. "Is...Is that navy blue in the background? Tamama?" He looked around. Tamama wasn't with them. Was he with Mois?

"Must have been foul play. If I could wager anything on it I bet Tamama gave Mois up to the flyians so he could catch them while she got tortured or something. He would do that." Kululu hissed.

Keroro shook his head. "Tamama wouldn't do that! Well...Tamama would decide against that at the last minute." He corrected. "But...Tamama might have been captured too. You're right."

Kululu paced around trying to think of a way to save Mois all on his own. His plan was not the most thought out and it didn't take him very long to realize he couldn't probably do this on his own.

"Listen, Keroro." Kululu turned to him and walked over to him, desperately grabbing onto his arm. "Although I hate you, I need you right now. I can't do this alone. Please...I'm begging you to get the rest of the platoon together to save Mois." Kululu paused.

"You're our supposed leader so we'll listen to your orders. I probably can't do all this alone, I never can, so I need your help." Everybody could tell that Kululu was having great difficulty asking for help. It wasn't something he liked to do, but he really needed to be on the safe side. "I'll use every tool at my disposal if I have to. The platoon for some reason succeeds at rescue missions. And I can't argue with results."

Keroro nodded and smiled. "I wouldn't abandon Mois and Tamama. Don't worry Kululu." He didn't know why Kululu thought he was that heartless, but he suspected Kululu just wasn't thinking that clearly. Or he thought that Keroro was like himself and only cared about people precious to him. Kululu looked really worried though so he cut him some slack for not thinking clearly.

"Keroro platoon!" Keroro looked at his platoon mates. "I have one last set of orders for you. One last mission as your sergeant. I need you to capture the flyians that have captured Mois and Tamama. And save our missing teammates!"

Giroro and Dororo saluted. "You can count on us."

"What do you want us to do, sarge?" Fuyuki asked. "I want to help to."

"You're an idiot if you think I'm leaving Tamama alone." Momoka frowned.

Keroro looked at Koyuki, Momoka, Fuyuki and Natsumi. "You four are honorary members of the Keroro platoon now. Please follow my orders and come with us. I believe only together we can capture the flyians."

"You can't capture my friends!" Haru yelled. "I'm coming with you. You need an adult there, to make sure things go right but that nobody...Including the flyians get hurt."

Saburo raised his hand. "Yo, hey. I know this is a dramatic moment but I volunteer to not go on this heroic journey and instead keep watch of him." He pointed on Haru. "He'd probably only mess things up. I feel like he's the type who would let Mois and Tamama die for those fly friends of his. What did they even do to get so much of your loyalty?"

Haru glared as Saburo grabbed his wrists, tightly.

Keroro smiled. "Thanks." He looked at his friends. "You heard him. It's time for our heroic adventure. The mission to save Tamama and Mois begins now!"

* * *

Kululu led them to where Angol Mois likely was. It was a fair distance away but eventually they came to a hill. The sky was gone, covered in flyians.

It was so dark. It made them all feel chilly that the moon was gone.

" _Stupid keronian. Thinking he could trick us by using a sacrifice to distract us so he could catch us. How foolish."_ They spoke to themselves.

"I knew Tamama was responsible for this." Kululu cursed.

Keroro frowned. "Tamama..." He couldn't condone what he had done. _Still, despite what they said it did have the merit of results. All of the flyians are here. That's clear enough by how there is no moon. How dark the sky is._

"What do we do now, Keroro?" Giroro whispered, he could barely see anything in this thick darkness. Who knew where Tamama and Mois were?

Kululu wasn't listening. He had his own plan. He took something out of a bag. "You do your own thing. I have some bugs to kill. KU, KU, KU!" His hand wiped out with a can of bug spray.

"That...Can't work...Can it?" Natsumi winced.

"Specially made. Made it myself based on their biology. It will definitely kill them." He rushed forward. Everybody followed him as Kululu just sprayed bug spray in the air, letting the thick darkness start to drop as the flyians dropped to the ground.

Giroro grabbed his arm. "You can't do that. Keron needs those creatures!" He reminded. "They'll rip Pekopon apart if they don't have them. They need them alive. We can't kill them. We have to capture them."

Kululu scoffed. "I don't care. You have your goals, I have mine. We both have something we have to protect right now. The thing important to me isn't as sappy as a planet though." Kululu shoved Giroro off and continued spraying.

Giroro couldn't stop him. And just like that as another fly dropped to the ground, the flyians clued in that they were being attacked.

" _Ugh. The Green one sneaked up on us again. It's happening all over again."_ They just all turned to Keroro.

It was time to fight. The battle had begun. And Keroro knew there wasn't any time to be ready. He had to find Tamama and Mois.

Before he could give better instructions to his platoon they all went their separate ways, as the flyians rushed them and darkness made it difficult for them to navigate.

And nobody knew where anybody was.

* * *

The darkness was thick, but Kululu managed to navigate pretty well. Perhaps it was that he was used to a no light atmosphere, perhaps it was that he just kept spraying whatever was in front of him to clear a path. Eventually the flyians got smart enough to just part the pathway so that they wouldn't die.

" _If you think you're better and stronger than us, you're very mistaken."_ The flyians mocked. _"Your entire platoon is filled with cracks and insecurities. We've used at least two of your members fears against them, reading their memories and exploiting them. You yourself are filled with insecurities-"_

"Sorry? Were you talking? Couldn't hear you over your children and friends dying. Man, in the end you really are just bugs." Kululu stomped on another bug. "Ku, ku, ku. If you want to try to be the superior one against me you should maybe try a little harder. Try to not die or something. That makes you look a little better. Oh wait! You can't do that." He sprayed one fly and just tightly tugged the wings off of it.

It was probably grotesque to the flyians. But to Kululu it was literally just a bug. "Using insults to get to people is my forte. So if that's your only strength and tactic you're in a losing battle."

The flyians screamed in infuriating anger. _"There are other things we could do! We could...We could bite you."_

"Try it." Kululu shrugged and just kept walking.

The flyians swarmed at him, trying to grab at his skin with their little mouths. Kululu didn't spray any bug spray. Instead he grinned.

" _AUGH! What….What is that? Ick! What's on your skin? It's...It's not flesh...It's poison! And it burns!"_ There was just painful screams in Kululu's mind.

"Ku, ku, ku. Curry. I bathe in it. It takes specific adaptations to handle spice. Guess you can't touch me? Really sucks to be you right now. Oh wait, I don't care. Don't have any pity for you guys." Kululu reached out to squish some more flyians. They swarmed away from him in absolute fear.

" _You….We could read your memories...Your worst memories. Your insecurities-"_ They desperately tried to conjure up a plan against Kululu.

Kululu kept on walking. "I really don't have time for you childish play on people's insecurities tactic. If you think bringing up old memories will save you from my rage, you're absolutely mistaken."

" _You're...You're filled with insecurities! It will work! There's so much about you that's wrong!"_ They tried to desperately point out.

"So? And I know it. I have to live as myself every day. So just cuz somebody else says something doesn't mean I'll drop everything to cry. I'm not a crybaby. But...I can see that you are." He squished another flyian with bug spray. He heard the flyians scream in terror.

"Better run, or else I could eat you. Keronians do that you know." He pointed out.

They screamed again and ran.

He grinned and just kept walking, until they cleared a path for him and he could run. He was done with them. He had to get to Mois.

He reached her, still bound in chains by the flyians. Her other forms had finally dissolved and she was in her angolian form.

He sprayed the chains and the flyians melted away from her ankles.

"Mois. Come on. I'm here. Wake up! We've got to get out of here." He tried to tug at her arm. But she just wasn't moving.

Angol Mois's eyes were closed, despite what horrors had happened to her body, she seemed somewhat peaceful, just laying there silently. There were a clear number of bruises all along her body, and it seemed oddly tired. It didn't have a healthy sort of glow to it, it was like it was fading away, or melting away.

"Come on! Wake up! You know I can't carry you out here! And despite how afraid of bug spray the flyians are they will come back to finish the job if you don't wake up right now!" Kululu started shaking her shoulders. "I understand wanting to sleep but this is no time. This is serious, Mois."

He knew she wasn't actually sleeping. But he wanted to believe she was just taking one of her usual naps, that she wasn't waking up by choice.

His hands were trembling as he touched her. "C-come on." He begged. "I...I don't want you to get eaten by them. I can't cover you or anything with my body. I'm too small. I can't do anything but get you away from here. This is serious. Wake up…" He begged.

She made no movement.

He felt useless. _I came here. I got to you. It can't be too late. You're just...Heavily injured or something. You've got to pull through._ "It really is serious, Mois! You're life is serious. It's real serious to me! Stop...Stop napping!" He threw his head on her chest, to hide that he was about to cry. He didn't want the flyians to see it. They'd throw themselves at any weakness.

Yet again there was no sound. Not even a breath was taken. Everything about her looked so weak, so like it would disappear in moments.

"Stop it! This isn't fair! You have to wake up!" Kululu screamed. "You're a good person. You're kind. This isn't like you. You wouldn't do something so cruel and horrible like dying on me or anything! You said you'd stay by my side because you were my friend. You're not a liar." He hugged her tightly.

She didn't move. She was a liar. She was leaving him. It was just like the rain forest and how she had left in anger. Except this time was so much worse. She might not ever come back.

Kululu felt worse too, because this time the situation really had nothing to do with him. He had no part in it. And for some reason knowing that he was completely helpless made him feel even worse. He didn't cause this, so he couldn't fix it.

He was just too late. He felt the ebbing feeling of hopelessness start to eat away at him.

He hugged her tighter and just started sobbing. "Come on, how can you make me fall in love with you and then leave me? That's not fair. Just...Just please wake up. I promise to never use you. I'll even help you with Keroro. Just...Be fine."

He knew words couldn't help her in anyway. But he just felt himself talking anyway.

The flyians seemed to sense that Kululu was faltering. Since he was by far one of the most infuriating problems in the group, they started surrounding the two of them.

Even if they couldn't eat at him they might be able to cut off airways. They got closer and closer.

Kululu didn't notice. He was too busy looking after Angol Mois.

The buzzing was loud. Even someone with their eyes closed could hear it. But Kululu still didn't notice.

A weak hand shot up to swat the flyians away, before they created some sort of fly tornado. Mois's hand fell onto Kululu's back.

He sprung up. "Mois?"

"K-kululu." She wasn't feeling too well, but her eyes had opened. She had woken up. Some in part because Kululu was being very loud and yelling at her, and some because she needed to protect them both from the flyians.

Kululu tried to smile as he wiped away and remains of tears. He didn't say much. He just hugged her tightly as if hoping that she'd never leave again.

She smiled at him and held him too. She couldn't do much more. But she was alive.

* * *

Dororo tried to run through the mess of flyians. _If I kill or capture any of them the cycle of hatred will just continue, more and more. This will happen again in the far future._ No progress would be made.

So he had to pretend to be fighting. He unsheathed his sword and started to pretend to slice at the flyians. Out of everyone he was the only one who could distinguish where each of the flyians were in the mass. His assassin eyes let him. Koyuki's eyesight was also that good.

"Dororo! You doing all right?" Koyuki asked throwing a kunai knife. It missed but hit into the ground with a piece of paper tied to it making a small light explosion.

"Yes, Lady Koyuki!" Dororo lied. Fighting the flyians had never been his goal, but he didn't want to bring the team down by just faking it.

"Good. I'll cover your back. You cover mine. That way the flyians can't sneak up on us." Koyuki decided.

Dororo's lip quivered. She didn't know yet.

He let Koyuki get into position at his back, feeling for a moment like he didn't deserve it if he wasn't giving her the full story.

She continuously shot kunai knives at the flyians.

He couldn't continue like this.

"I….I don't want to do this, Lady Koyuki. If we kill them….If we capture them, the cycle of hatred will just continue. It's not good for my planet or the flyians." Dororo confessed as he moved forward to slice into the air to protect Koyuki's arm from a mess of flies.

Koyuki glanced at him in confusion. "So...You don't want to fight? You...Think it's not the right thing to do?" She always wanted to do the right thing.

"I wish we could talk to them or find a non-violent solution." Dororo confessed.

Koyuki thought for a moment. Suddenly her hands started going in a symbol of patterns. "Dororo! Do the wind art! We can disrupt their flying pattern to freeze them. Nobody will get hurt and we'll be able to see. You or I won't have to slice anything."

Dororo's eyes widened. Why hadn't he thought of that? _Because Koyuki is much more of an expert in ninja arts than I am. She's always got great ideas._ He smiled. He was glad he had Koyuki on his side.

He did the symbols in synchronization with Koyuki. They locked hands together and suddenly a giant tornado appeared around them as they spun.

The flyians froze in their tracks, a bunch being caught in the tornado. They couldn't move. But they couldn't be attacked either. They just were sucked into the tornado. And slowly, things became less thick with flyians.

Koyuki's plan had worked.

* * *

Momoka was on her own. Her keronian partner was not around. "Tamama! Tamama!" She yelled. But Tamama was nowhere to be found.

She couldn't see. And although she was good in a martial arts tournament she couldn't punch a fly. So she decided to make herself useful in the only way she could.

By using her supplies and her money to help her teammates.

Everybody had gone off in different directions as she held a giant net that had been made with Nishizawa money. It would secure and keep the flyians that they needed to catch. But where were the flyians that could be caught?

They flew away from her when she got close. And she couldn't see anything in this darkness. As soon as Kululu had run off everybody had gone their own way in irritation.

She felt bad that nobody really was thinking of Tamama. Yes, he had made some mistakes, but he was still her friend.

She looked around desperately for him. Suddenly she saw a bright flash of light, like an explosion.

"Tamama?" She remembered his Tamama impacts. She ran over.

"Ninja art: Wind tornado!" She heard Koyuki and Dororo's voice. Suddenly the air cleared up along with the sky. Thousands upon thousands of flyians got caught and sucked up in a giant tornado.

Momoka latched her feet into the ground. "A little wind won't suck up a Nishizawa!" She was stronger than this. She held onto her net tightly.

She smiled as she saw the flyians. She jumped into the air as if she was about to slam dunk a basketball. And she swooped in and caught them all.

"Score one for us!" she smiled.

Dororo did not look very amused.

* * *

Natsumi and Giroro held hands so they wouldn't get lost in the mess of flyians.

"We've got to go after Kululu and make sure he doesn't ruin things for Pekopon!" Giroro instructed, trying to go through the storm of flyians like it was a sand storm.

"Let's not focus on Kululu." Natsumi suggested. "We should be focusing on kicking these bugs butt. There's too many of them to just focus on one group."

Giroro couldn't glance at her, but his hand tightened as if he was giving reluctant agreement. "Be careful, Natsumi. I heard they eat pekoponian lifespan. What if they try to eat you?"

"I'll punch them off my skin then. I'm not a weenie. I can take a bug biting me. I'll just squash it!" Natsumi proclaimed.

Giroro probably got doey eyed at how much of a warrior she was.

" _So...It's the discarded soldier and the pekoponian he's lovesick for?"_ The flyians finally acknowledged Giroro and Natsumi's presence. _"Eat her. We've sustained heavy injuries from...An apparent weapon called bug spray."_

Natsumi glared straight ahead at the mess of flyians. They shot forward like an arrow to swarm her. But then they stopped right in front of her nose before touching her.

" _Pink hair...It couldn't be...That's rare in pekoponians….Haru?"_ They realized.

"Yuck! I'm shorter than him! I'm just his daughter! Get your heights right!" Natsumi frowned.

" _Haru's….Child? But...This is wrong. We could never hurt someone related to Haru. And as someone with pink hair you're clearly related to Haru."_ They realized. _"Oh no! We can't touch her!"_

"Good. Perfect." Natsumi cracked her knuckles. Giroro threw her a beam sword.

" _But...Haru's precious child is dating a keronian. The poor thing has been conned. We can kill the keronian. We might not be able to hurt her, but we can hurt him!"_ They had an excited buzz as they tried to find a loophole.

Suddenly they all swarmed together into a giant bull like beast. They had a goal now. To kill Giroro.

Giroro pulled out a gun. "Perfect. Forming a shape makes them easier to target." He pointed.

"But...I thought we were capturing them, not killing..." Natsumi whispered.

Giroro nodded. "Look over there." He pointed. "Momoka's waiting with a net. Just push them into it."

Natsumi smiled. It was time to do what she did best- fight. Running forward with Giroro by her side, she tried to separate the monster into pieces to confuse it and make it reform. She just sliced with her beam sword over and over again.

Giroro shot at it. "You're doing great, Natsumi. It's always been my dream to fight by your side." He would say.

Natsumi grinned. "Stop complimenting me and focus on the battle! Wouldn't want you to slow down."

Giroro blushed and tried to focus on the target instead of Natsumi. It was difficult, but he managed to do it.

The flyians screamed and started backing up. Eventually into Momoka.

"Hey." She greeted and swooped forward catching them.

Natsumi smiled. "That will teach you to just think of me as Haru's kid. I want nothing to do with him anymore!"

The flyians just shivered. _"You might have won the battle, but you're still losing. You've caught maybe thousands of us. There are millions. How will you catch all of us?"_

Giroro glanced at the night sky. The darkness of the flyians just moving. They were right.

They all had a heavy task ahead of them.

"Let's….Hope Dororo or Kululu pull much more than their own weight." He couldn't relay on Keroro after all. It wasn't like he'd be able to catch all of them.

After all Keroro wasn't very good in fights. Best case scenario Keroro was a distraction.

Giroro looked throughout the plains of the hill for more flyians, and the rest of their friends.

* * *

Fuyuki was afraid. He didn't like bugs. And he was even more afraid of the flyians after what happened last time.

He clutched at the ground and crawled desperately trying to follow Keroro. He couldn't leave him alone though. Two was better than one and he didn't want Keroro to be swarmed and killed.

Keroro had been desperately screaming for Tamama and feeling around to try to find him. Fuyuki was happy enough that they were focusing on their friends lives before fighting the monster that was the hivemind of the flyians.

Still it didn't sound like there was much luck in finding Tamama.

"S-should...We look for Mois?" Fuyuki suggested. Maybe they should try the other missing teammate.

"Kululu's got her. He rushed straight into the darkness to get her. I wish he would have waited so we could go looking for Tamama and Mois together but...I can hardly blame him. I'm certainly worried about what happened to Tamama. TAMAMA! Where are you?" Keroro yelled again.

 _I hope he's alive...He's not answering though._ Fuyuki thought. Keroro was ahead of him, but he could still see his legs. They were probably the lowest to the ground, him and Keroro.

"Fuyuki...You're going rather slowly. We've got to speed up." Keroro instructed.

Fuyuki was still crawling. "I...I don't want to stand up. Then the flyians will notice me." He was so afraid of the flyians possessing him again. He tried to open his mouth as little as possible. _Why can't I stop shaking? Tamama and Mois are in much more trouble than me. Yet I'm afraid of the flyians possessing me again and hurting me._

"Hey...Sarge…?" Fuyuki spoke up.

"Yeah?" Keroro asked.

"Would you still be my friend and care about me and remember me even if I was dead or possessed?" A rather morbid thought entered Fuyuki's mind.

Keroro didn't glance back at him. He was still looking around for Tamama. "Of course I would." He replied. "You're my friend forever, remember, Fuyuki! Things will stay the same forever between us. We're the great Sergeant Keroro and his best friend, the pekoponian boy Fuyuki Hinata!"

Fuyuki didn't have time to utter a thank you or a sigh of relief. Instead he heard something.

" _We've sustained heavy injuries. Some of our members have even died."_ The flyians were buzzing in Keroro and Fuyuki's mind. They were speaking.

" _What do we do?"_ One asked.

" _We heal. We need food. We need energy. Life energy to heal the ones injured. To re spawn the ones dead. We need a full healthy body of food. Something with a good lifespan on it."_ One suggested.

" _What about that one? That boy doesn't have pink hair. Must not be related to Haru if that's the case. And he tasted pretty yummy last time I checked."_ A flyian suggested.

Fuyuki knew immediately who they were talking about. Immediately he felt himself shiver. He covered his mouth and pinched his nose. _Can't get in me if I close my mouth!_ He was smarter than them.

"Fuyuki- who are they talking about?" Keroro turned around, just as the flyians descended on Fuyuki's small and fragile body.

Keroro's question was answered.

Fuyuki closed his eyes and tried to just curl up in a ball so that the flyians couldn't get him. But to his surprise they didn't move anywhere near his mouth, instead they started nestling into his arms and body. They put their heads on him as if burrowing into every pour and eating away at his life force.

Fuyuki didn't know if any entered his body. All he felt was blackness and the feeling of every organ rupturing simultaneously. He held his hand over his mouth tightly but the flyians and him had bonded so much that everyone could hear Fuyuki's screams in their head.

" _AHHHHH!"_ The voice was no doubt Fuyuki. But it was a short scream. All to suddenly it ended and there was only the sound of uncomfortable silence.

After a moment the buzzing started again.

Everyone froze.

"Fuyuki!" Momoka yelled. She ran over to him at top speed.

"F-f...Fuyuki?" Keroro walked over to Fuyuki ever so slowly.

Momoka slid to a halt as she reached Fuyuki. She fell to the ground as the flyians left him.

In front of Keroro and Momoka wasn't the Fuyuki they knew. Instead it was the shape of a bleeding human, no signs of life any longer. His eyes were open and all of his body looked broken, the bones, parts of the skin. Everything.

Momoka let out a scream. "He's...He's d-dead!"

Keroro just looked down at his old friend. His best friend. His precious human companion. He could almost hear Fuyuki's voice. _"Will you always remember me, Sarge?"_

"I….I will..." Keroro let out a whimper. "Fuyuki….No..N-no..." He felt himself breaking as he continued to look at the sight before him.

His sobs weren't nearly as large as Momoka's. He wasn't even sobbing. He just felt this tornado of emptiness. This fear. Tamama was gone- the flyians had proven that they would kill and he was probably dead in a similar fashion, and they had killed Fuyuki in front of him.

Something in Keroro snapped. He broke. Too many of his friends had died, or were dead. None of them should have been hurt.

"NO MORE!" He screamed. He just wanted to cry. But there were no tears in Keroro as he snapped. Instead a light emitted around his entire body, and the ground cracked under him.

The light didn't disappear as the sky lit up. Everybody could see where the flyians were and where Keroro was now. He just looked up at the flyians, his eyes dark with rage.

But something was very wrong about Keroro as he raised his hand. The flyians buzzing started to sound like trembling.

And suddenly the flyians all dropped to the ground as if gravity itself was descending on them by just a wave of Keroro's hand. It wasn't normal.

The flyians desperately tried to get up. Some of them managed to enter the sky again, but Keroro was ready.

He jumped into the air. He seemed to float because for some reason he didn't go back to the ground. Moving faster than anything that anyone had ever seen he seemed to grab each fly individually and drop it into a net. Despite there being billions of flyians he did this individually for each and every one in a matter of seconds.

" _You can't take us down. W-we...We have your memories. We can enter your memories. Yes. Would you like to see that boy again?"_ The flyians shivered.

Keroro didn't say anything. He just blasted the flyian with a beam of light. His expression seemed frozen, stoic. _"If you have my memories, doesn't that mean I have your minds too? That our minds could be connected for one brief moment?"_ Keroro's voice was in their minds.

He had entered their minds for some sort of psychic link. He just held open another net. _"This is the only safe place."_ He directed.

And for some reason from his lies, some of the flyians believed him. They flew into the bags, falling for his psychic tricks.

Keroro continued to fly in the air as the sky became less and less thick with flyians. They tried to flee, but Keroro was still there, rushing around the boundaries of the hill and grabbing them.

" _Everybody run! It's Keroro! He's here!"_ They just screamed.

And Keroro managed to smile as if he had forgotten what he had just seen. "You're right. It's me."

Not a single fly managed to escape his wrath. He captured them all as the remainder of his platoon mates watched along with his friends, not quite sure what was going on.

For such an incredible task, the glowing Keroro did not take very long at it. It took 30 seconds tops to capture quadrillions and quadrillions of flies.

He slowly descended onto land again, and as if every step he took created absolute stunned silence he walked over to the broken Fuyuki.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you." He apologized. He leaned over and touched his forehead to Fuyuki's the star on his cap glowing.

As if by magic, Fuyuki blinked. The light emitting around Keroro spread to Fuyuki and the injuries on his body closed up and healed. A mark seemed to appear on Fuyuki's head though, bright yellow like a birthmark. It was a star, like a tattoo.

It glowed, until he was fully healed.

Fuyuki coughed.

"Fuyuki!" Momoka hugged him. She didn't even care about what mystical mumbo jumbo was going on. All she cared about was that Fuyuki was back.

Fuyuki smiled a bit but looked rather curiously at Keroro, or tried to look past Momoka. "Did...Did I just die? Or almost die…? Did….I...I remember a bit...The flyians...You touching my forehead…? The light..."

Keroro just nodded.

Fuyuki touched his forehead. He still felt the warmth of the star. He smiled. "Cool. I love cool alien stuff."

"You...Aren't bitter?" Momoka asked. "A bunch of flies tried to kill you!"

"But cool alien stuff." Fuyuki said simply. That and the flies were gone. He was too petrified by trying to figure out the mystery of what was going on to care about the dramatic almost death.

Keroro just stared at Fuyuki. His expression went back to neutral, the burning bright light still all around his body. He turned around as if he was done with Fuyuki, his eyes scanning around for more flies or something.

"Urk…." Tamama was waking up. Momoka's screaming over Fuyuki had woken him and he had seen the event of Keroro capturing the flyians.

Keroro walked over to him, slowly. It wasn't clear if he was mad. His expression just seemed to look like he felt distaste. Or disinterest.

It scared Tamama. _This...This Mr. Sergeant's all wrong. Something about him isn't right. And it isn't the glowy light. He...He looks scary. Like he's better than all of us. Like we're just toys._ This wasn't like his Mr. Sergeant. Keroro might have been an idiot, but he cared a lot about people.

Maybe Tamama was just reading into things too deeply though. He covered his head, realizing that with the way Keroro's fist was balled Keroro might be readying himself to take him out like he did to the flyians. He shivered. _Maybe he's just mad at me. I did almost kill Mois. And I guess Fuyuki indirectly. I bet...I bet he hates me._ He could see the anger in his eyes as Keroro approached him.

Keroro must have been seeing him for the first time clearly. He had messed up.

Tamama shivered. M-Mr...Mr. Sergeant." He shivered as Keroro approached him.

Keroro was going to kill him. He was at fault for everything. It was time for his judgment. His punishment. He was pure evil and didn't belong in this world.

"You...You can k-kill me...I know what you're going to do. I'm at fault for everything after all. I almost killed your best friend. I would have taken away the person who you'll date." Tamama felt himself gulp. He hadn't ever been afraid of Keroro before.

But he looked at him anyway. "You were the one who saved my life in the first place. I'm only alive thanks to you. So...I guess it's okay if you take my life away and destroy me." He didn't honestly know what Keroro was planning.

Normally Keroro wouldn't do such a thing, but Keroro...Keroro was looking so much different right now. Tamama hardly knew him. It didn't felt like the Keroro he had spent so much time with on Pekopon.

Keroro paused. His hand moved towards Tamama's head, his fist clenched.

"You...You can kill me! You obviously have the power to. You're...You're so powerful all of a sudden. It's...It's scary." Tamama was crying and shivering.

The hand unwrapped itself and pat Tamama's head. Tamama shivered. Was this a way of giving him one last mortal touch before his justified punishment? Two people had almost died?

 _He's afraid of me..._ A single thought seemed to be in Keroro's head. And as soon as it was thought, the glow seemed to slowly go away. The light around Keroro disappeared. His eyes seemed to return to normal, instead of the angry look they had.

"Tamama?" He asked, his voice sounding confused. He pat Tamama's head more.

"Y-yes?" Tamama asked, confused.

Keroro grabbed him and hugged him. "I found you! I thought you were dead like Fuyuki is." He felt his voice crack.

"Actually I'm right here and I'm fine-" Fuyuki tried to tell him from behind Keroro. "Don't you remember? You literally just healed me with alien science!"

"Oh." Keroro decided to put that mystery away to be questioned about later. He was very confused. But he just held Tamama tighter because he felt very tired and like he had had a very long and bad day. "I'm so glad you aren't dead or hurt, private. I don't know what I would have done if you were dead like Fuyuki."

"Still….Not dead." Fuyuki tried to correct.

Keroro started crying. "My best friend just died and I almost lost you too! I don't know what I would have done if you disappeared, Tamama. I was so worried." He held Tamama tighter.

Tamama awkwardly put his hands on Keroro's back to pat it. He wasn't quite sure why Keroro was crying. Fuyuki was fine, but he wasn't sure he deserved Keroro's hug. _So...He's not mad at me? He was just looking for me?_

He felt himself sniffle to. He didn't deserve this. Keroro was too good for him. "WAHHHH!" Tamama started crying and hugged Keroro as well. "I'm so sorry! This is my fault! I don't deserve to have you look for me! I just wanted to help, to try to capture the flyians for you so you didn't have to do anything bad. But you had to clean up my mess!"

"You...Might have done wrong, but you were trying to help so it's not all bad-" Keroro tried to comfort him.

"That's not fully true! I lied!" Tamama sobbed again. "I also just wanted to get that woman out of the way! I didn't care about her! It was just another of my selfish plots! I'm a sinful, selfish creature!" He confessed loudly.

Keroro pat his head trying to calm Tamama down. He knew it was probably a reason like that. Everybody kind of knew Tamama had some jealous issues and did not perhaps make the best decisions when it came to morals concerning Mois. This was honestly kind of expected. "I love you. It's all right." He said simply.

Tamama looked up and wiped away his tears. "You...You love me?" He asked, his voice filled with shock and joy.

"Yeah! I love you the way I love all my platoon members, friends and keronians." Keroro smiled blissfully ignorant.

Tamama just frowned. "...I was so close…So freakin close..." He felt like cursing.

Keroro tugged himself away from Tamama now that Tamama was being more of his normal self and looked okay. "So where are the flyians? The sky no longer looks dark. Did they flee? Although capturing them was the goal I guess it was a pretty huge task. I'm glad everybody's safe though."

Everybody looked at him. "You mean you don't remember, Keroro?" Giroro asked.

"I only remember how god darn tired I am. Honestly I feel like I'm about to collapse." Keroro was holding onto Tamama and Tamama realized that it wasn't fully because he wanted to. It was because he was having problems balancing. "So where did the flyians go?"

"You...You caught them all, Mr. Sergeant." Tamama frowned. How could Keroro not remember any of this? It was really huge.

Keroro looked confused. "Nah. I think I'd remember something like that. Unless...My memory is that bad." He glanced at Dororo.

"It usually is. What's my name?" Dororo asked.

"Domomo?" Keroro suggested.

Dororo sighed in annoyance.

"Ku, ku, ku. This is highly unusual." Kululu looked at Keroro for a moment trying to figure out what was going on. "Not the forgetting about things, that seems very normal for Keroro. He is an idiot after all. But that blast of sheer power...I've never heard of anything like that happening before. Never seen anything like it."

Keroro dropped to the ground, to his knees, very tired.

"Perhaps it's the Keron Star's full power. We do rarely see it being used. And Keroro sure does have a lot of backlogs of it that should have been his. Perhaps all of the Keron star exhibited itself in one huge moment to make up for all those times that it hadn't been used. But it was too much for him and put a fair amount of stress on his body causing him to experience memory loss and tiredness." Kululu immediately came up with a hypothesis.

There was a faint glow that was still fading around the Keron Star. Either way it was something to test later when they all got home to heal and turn the flyians over to Keron.

Keroro wasn't listening to Kululu's hypothesis. Instead he took Tamama's hand and tried to use Tamama as leverage to get up. "Thanks."  
"I'm sorry." Tamama apologized again. "For everything."

"I forgive you." Keroro replied. "I'm glad you're okay. I wouldn't want one of my two most important friends to be hurt. You and Fuyuki." Keroro glanced over. "Fuyuki! You're okay!" He noticed.

"Yeah. That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Fuyuki sighed.

"You pretended to die so you could get a new tattoo?" Keroro glanced at his forehead. "That's immature Fuyuki."

Fuyuki sighed. There was no reminding Keroro of what happened. He just laughed and smiled, glad that everyone was okay.

And they all headed away from that hill to go back home and recuperate.

* * *

They all collapsed inside the Hinata House. But before any of them could properly recuperate a giant Keron ship landed in the backyard in it's designated area- Giroro's tent.

"I just put that up!" Giroro yelled, throwing his hands in the air in irritation.

The doorway opened, and the colonel walked out, his cape flowing behind him. Keroro's father was at his right side and Agugu, a green keronian who seemed to be very young that he was hanging around with was at his left.

"W-what are you doing here? We still have time to catch the flyians. And we're all really really tired...I mean injured." Keroro corrected.

The colonel looked at him. Keroro couldn't read his expression. Keroro tried to keep his eyes on the colonel instead of his father. He didn't really want to face him right now. He didn't want to blurt out a question like 'why didn't you tell me it was all a lie?'

"We wanted to check your progress." The colonel replied.

"Oh. Well no need to worry about that. We caught all of them." Keroro replied. "But we're too tired to transport them right now. A lot of us got hurt in the battle."

The colonel tapped his foot like that was no excuse.

Dororo saw his chance. "I...I could deliver them to the ship for you." He volunteered. "I'm unhurt."

"I'm uninjured as well!" Giroro reminded. A slab of wood fell on him from the ceiling. "Never mind." Just his luck.

Dororo tried not to look guilty. _I've got to do this. I've got to secretly free them. I can not let Keron get them. They will use their power to hurt other races and the cycle of hatred will only continue._

"All right, Dororo!" Keroro replied. "I guess you can deliver them to the ship. We trust you after all."

Dororo nodded and headed off.

* * *

He approached the cages on the hill. There must have been hundreds of them lined up. They weren't trying to get out though, they all looked so frightened.

Dororo picked one up. "I would like to speak to you. As equals."

" _What do you want keronian? Came to rub it in our face that we're going to be eaten? Ask why we did something so horrible to your pekoponian friend? We were only scared. Scared for our children and our friends and family. We knew you were powerful and did not want him to get us."_ They were clearly speaking of Keroro.

Dororo sighed. "Listen, I don't like what you did to Fuyuki or Mois. You've clearly done some bad things. But if I let Keron get you, worse will happen. I've seen the enemy I know. My planet. I was an assassin for them. And they're downright evil. If they gain the power to advance into a more powerful species and invade more they will enslave innocent races. At least when you take others energy you give something in return. Protection from aliens, correct?"

" _Wait...Are you turning traitor? Are you coming to our side?"_ The flyians were confused. They had never seen a keronian do this, try to sympathize with their plight.

"No species that is sentient deserves to be cattle to another. To just be raised and bred to be eaten. You are as intelligent as us. We would be dooming you to a cruel life." Dororo told them. "And no I'm not coming to your side. I want to cut a deal."

The flyians sounded interested. _"We...We will listen to you. You sound...Reasonable."_

"Get off of Pekopon. Do not eat the creatures of this planet's lifespan. Leave and I will release you." Dororo instructed.

The flyians thought for a moment. _"We agree. Your terms are agreeable. It's clear you care very much for the people of this planet."_

Dororo opened a cage door. But oddly enough not all the flyians left. "What are you doing? You've got to go."

" _Your plan might be a good one, but it's not a smart one. The keronians will try to follow us throughout the entire universe if all of us go. Not only that but they will assume we are still on Pekopon. Do you really want the planet you love to be torn apart by their gluttony?"_ They asked.

"N-no..." Dororo hadn't thought about that. He had figured he'd shoulder the responsibility and try to protect Pekopon all on his own.

" _Some...Some of us will go to Keron as a distraction. They do not know how large our population is. Only your platoon does. Some amount will feed them for at least a year. And then the rest of us can escape and the keronians will not follow or look."_ They decided.

"But that is a cruel fate for those of you who have to be sacrifices." Dororo frowned.

" _It...It is a fate we must accept. We care about our own. So some of us will be the sacrifices."_ They spoke.

Dororo gave a reluctant nod. He slowly opened the cage doors as the flyians rearranged themselves and said good bye to their family and friends who were left behind.

And Dororo left with the small amount of cages that would be left behind so he could give them to the colonel.

* * *

Dororo had succeeded at delivering the flyians. The colonel turned away from the Keroro platoon.

Not all of the Keroro platoon looked happy. They knew that the search for the flyians was finally over, but as soon as the ship left their exile would began. And a lot of them didn't want to go through that or think about it.

"It's too bad that so few were left in the galaxy, but there's not much we can do about it." The colonel sighed. "You still completed the task we assigned of you."

"Just doing our job." Giroro saluted, hoping desperately that the colonel might change his mind that they were all failures.

"You're still being left here." The colonel clarified. "But we will not touch Pekopon. Pekopon is yours." He scanned the Keroro platoon with his eyes. "Thank you, Keroro platoon." He walked back into the ship.

Keroro waited for his father to go follow the colonel. His father instead stared at him.

"Hi...Hi dad...Umm….Sorry about all this..." Keroro looked at the ground. "Can...I still come home to visit you and mom on holidays?"

There was silence.

"You...Aren't disappointed in me are you?" Keroro asked. More silence. "Did...Did you know about this fake invasion plot when I was chosen for it?"

Keroro's father finally spoke, "How'd you succeed? How did you manage to capture them?"

Keroro smiled, and laughed awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, "I don't remember!"

Keroro's father just nodded. For some reason he didn't look all that confused. He walked up to Keroro.

Keroro took a breathe unsure of what was going to happen.

His father reached out as if to pat his son's shoulder or back, but stopped himself. "I'll see you soon….Keroro."

The words sounded so distant. His father was acting so distant.

 _Did this rift form from the truth of the invasion? What's on his mind?_ But Keroro didn't get a chance to ask.

Keroro's father just walked into the ship, Agugu following him. And Keroro was left confused.

The door closed behind them and the ship readied itself for blast off.

Agugu looked out the window as some of the Keroro platoon waved good-bye to them. The Demon Sergeant pressed a hand against the window and looked down at his son.

"Why didn't you say anything more to him?" Agugu asked. "Isn't he your son?" He pointed out. "Aren't you going to miss him? Isn't exiling him a big deal?"

The demon sergeant sighed. "It's not the last we've seen of Keroro." He paused. "It's never the end of Keroro." He sighed. "Or the last of him."

"Huh?" Agugu didn't understand. _Some other mission that the Demon Sergeant has planned for his son?_

The ship blasted off.

* * *

The five keronians were left on Pekopon. As the ship above them disappeared from view it finally set in that their jobs in the military were over. That they were not a part of Keron any longer.

"So...I guess we have to start a new life on Pekopon now." Keroro tried to be easy going about it.

Giroro gave a small nod. "A new life on this planet away from Keron."

"Well, maybe this is for the best! I can unpack all my new traumas about seeing my best friend die by taking some nice old me time!" Keroro tried to be positive. "That and there's a whole lot of toys on Pekopon! Oooh. Nobody can get mad at me for playing with toys instead of doing work. I'm not in the military any longer!" There were some good things about this circumstance. "I'm free from responsibility!" Keroro cheered.

"I'm just happy I'm with Mr. Sergeant." Tamama smiled. "I don't care that I'm not on Keron anymore." Tamama nuzzled up to Keroro.

"I...I guess it's not too bad being stuck on this planet..." Giroro blushed and glanced over at Natsumi. "An...An entire future with Natsumi to plan." He drooled, lovesick as usual. "I'm going to live on the same planet as Natsumi." He started fantasizing about the possible futures.

"I'm not bothered in the least bit. I always wanted to stay on Pekopon. I love this planet." Dororo smiled. "It was my plan to eventually live here.

"Ku, ku, ku. I wonder how quickly I can abandon this mud ball." Kululu schemed. "Mois, when's your next attempt on this planet's life going to be?"

Angol Mois was lying on the couch. She was injured but healing. "I don't know..." She frowned. "Maybe next week? How does Monday sound." She suggested casually. "I'm not in a very good mood with this planet at the moment since you know, I almost got murdered, but I'm pretty injured. That and I have other things to do right now."

"What other things?" Kululu asked.

"Like talking to you? I mean don't we have a lot to talk about? I heard what you said about me-" Angol Mois pointed out.

"Ah! Ah! I see! You're so injured that you're experiencing delusions! Ummm! Maybe you shouldn't talk and just rest. Rest is best for you!" Kululu desperately tried to play off his love confession. He was blushing quite a bit and making very bad excuses though. "I don't know what you heard, because it definitely didn't come out of my mouth, so I have literally no idea what you're talking about." Kululu was not coming up with very good excuses.

"You said you were in love with me? You don't remember that?" Angol Mois reminded. She looked like she was just trying to be helpful if he had forgotten.

Kululu just stared at the ground. "You...You didn't have to say it out loud." He was blushing a lot. He looked desperately around at the platoon. "Listen, she was dying. I- I wanted to shock her into waking up. So I m-might have said some weird things." It was another bad excuse.

Giroro snickered a bit. Kululu deserved it.

Angol Mois sighed and reached over to hold Kululu's hand. "I love you a whole lot too, Kululu. You're my best friend and someone I should have realized I loved a long time ago."

Kululu just blushed but he didn't move away. He moved a little closer since she was injured and all. Close contact was supposed to make someone feel better when they were hurt.

"Stupid _that_ woman." Tamama cursed under his breath, "She doesn't say that she loves someone in the way she loves all her friends. Even she knows better than that." He was still bitter that he hadn't gotten a love confession.

Keroro didn't hear him. He tried not to look at Angol Mois and Kululu like they were weird. What had happened in that rain forest? No wonder Saburo had cried. He would have cried too.

"There are a lot of new futures in the horizon for our platoon." Keroro agreed.

And everybody, deep down agreed. They all felt like there was something there around them that was more important to them than Keron.

* * *

 **Sometimes I worry that I'm making Tamama do too harsh of things and too selfish. Then I remember that one awful manga chapter and what he tried to do to Angol Mois. Let's just embrace the anime adaptation of that episode over the manga counterpart where he forces her to do tongue twisters instead.**

 **Kululu's device that locates Mois's location is from the same episode.**

 **Giroro's "all things are living gun" is from the episode where he turns into a human to dance with Natsumi at Momoka's ball.**

 **Also, I feel bad for what Fuyuki has to go through in this fic.**

 **Sorry that I'm super bad at writing fight scenes. It is my weakness.**

 **Anyway, please review!**


	12. Nothing Is Forever

**So here's the next chapter, it's more slice-of-life y not as dramatic. Trying to set up for the next arc. Takes place a year later.**

 **And yes, I did completely forget about Saburo. I had nothing for him to do. Oops. Sorry Saburo, my bad.**

 **Funny story so since originally Fuyuki was going to die in my original summary Haru, Fuyuki and Momoka got a lot less of the story because Fuyuki was dead, Haru was dead and Momoka was just so sad that she went off on her own. So that's why they do not have very much at all.**

 **I hope it's an okay-ish chapter.**

* * *

About a year had passed of exile on Pekopon. It had been one year since the incident with the flyians. And in a year a lot could change.

Keroro hated change. It was something he feared, the thought of it made his hands shake in anxiety. He just liked to push it to the back of his mind and pretend that it wasn't happening, that nobody was aging or moving on with their lives.

Out of everyone his platoon had changed the most. It was an inevitability. Instead of embracing a victory against a tough opponent and celebrating for days, upon months, upon years, they instead did the mature thing and moved on with their lives. They all had to form new dreams and change their responsibilities after all.

With his platoon going in all sorts of different directions, it started feeling more and more like things were crumbling underneath him. Like they were not a platoon anymore. Giroro even made the point several times that Keroro was not their leader any longer, that Keron and the military needed to mean nothing to them.

 _Just because the military isn't here for us doesn't mean we don't have to be there for each other. I don't understand why they have to be...Acting so weird._ It's like everyone was 'growing up' around him. Drifting away, and he was left behind to just be the leader with nothing.

He didn't even mind that they weren't following his orders fully anymore. He just wanted to keep being together, plotting non-important plans that were obviously going to fail, being mischievous, having fun.

Normal things. Things that he always thought would be in his life before this.

But that hadn't been the case. _Kululu had to ruin things. We could have all stayed as a close group of five if he didn't start changing._ Keroro didn't try to hard to not be too childishly bitter. That was much too hard of a task for him after all.

He knew it wasn't fully Kululu's fault. He just still felt hurt by things. It had only been a month into their exile when Kululu had started...drifting apart. To be completely fair to the guy he had been quite clear that he was going to try to ditch Pekopon at the first moment he could and that he had no attachment to it, but Keroro still felt hurt by how Kululu just started drifting.

Instead of staying around in his lab waiting for Keroro to ask him for an invention for an everyday prank, he instead started doing the responsible thing of looking for a job and trying to move on with his life. Brush the whole exile thing under the rug instead of moping all day and playing with toys.

Keroro knew that what Kululu was doing was reasonable. Kululu was thinking of himself. But Keroro wanted Kululu to be thinking of the platoon. Wanted them to be like an individual. And so he had felt hurt and bitter when he noticed quite quickly that Kululu's drifting was serious and wasn't just talk.

 _I didn't want it to end. If Kululu left this planet...If Kululu left the platoon and me….Every body might. It only takes one to start a trend._ Keroro had realized when Kululu had started seriously testing the idea of leaving the planet.

And Keroro had been right. Since Kululu was trying to leave, Angol Mois obviously followed. And Keroro certainly couldn't afford that.

 _I don't want the happy times to end though._ Keroro thought to himself. _I don't want any of our good and fun times as a platoon to end. And to be a platoon we need five. We need things to stay the same. So they can't leave._

Keroro knew deep down that the platoon wanted to sink into their own lives, grow into them. But he was the only one who childishly didn't want that. Keroro wanted to live in the false reality of being a platoon together, of being the oh so respected leader.

And to make his dream a reality he needed to keep his friends close.

And so the moment Kululu had started drifting, Keroro had started clinging like a leech. He made sure to pop up at every unnecessary moment to spend time with him, he made sure to try his best to be friendly, optimistic.

He knew he was being clingy, even following Kululu out and ruining possible job opportunities for him, but it was the only thing he could think of.

It was the only way he knew how to continue to let the platoon be a family and although it was a heavy task, he thought it was working.

* * *

Giroro sat polishing a gun in the old invasion meeting room. The ex-platoon still got together to meet quite frequently.

Kululu sat typing at his laptop, rather annoyed. He knew if he was the least bit late, Keroro would find him and start worrying about him and possibly drag him back into the meeting room.

"How do you deal with it?" Giroro finally asked Kululu.  
Kululu glanced up at the computer. "Hm?"

"The clinging. It doesn't take a genius to see that Keroro's been acting like a leech towards you, and even throwing fits when you don't join us for one of these weird parties." Giroro replied.

"Of course it doesn't take a genius to see it if you've noticed. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu said snidely. "Why are you asking?"

"He's started doing the same to me." Giroro admitted. "I think he's realized I've been trying to move on from this fake platoon thing, and playing pretend. It's been going on for about a month but that's still way too much. It's suffocating me."

Kululu nodded in agreement.

Tamama frowned. "I kinda like still meeting as a platoon." He piped up. "I enjoy the big parties and planning small and fun mischief. It's sweet being a platoon still! Like one big game."

"Keroro should be responsible. And mature. There's no reason he needs to be acting like life is a game." Giroro crossed his arms. "My life is not a plaything. I don't have time to play pretend."

"Ku, ku, ku. I especially hate the big huge speeches about how even though we're exiled Keronians we should stick together as a platoon because we're all aliens. That it's safer for us. Ugh, it's annoying. What's the worst part is because of his Keron star you almost believe him for a few seconds!"

"Bet you don't like being manipulated. Now you know how I feel everyday when I'm around you." Giroro teased.

"Every hour." Kululu corrected. "Hour. Ku, ku, ku." He crossed his arms though, thinking. "Every time he makes one of those big dramatic speeches I make the point that we're no longer a platoon anymore. I don't have to be here, but..."

"You're still here." Giroro pointed out. So something had gone wrong.

"He goes over my head and cries to Mois. The brat knows if he can get Mois to intend these things I might." Kululu crumpled some papers. "And Mois's just like 'Oh poor Uncle, he's crying so much. I've got to help him.' She pities him way too much. It's disgusting." It wasn't really just that, but Kululu wasn't going to mention out loud that sometimes Keroro threw himself at Kululu's feet crying and begging for inventions, using some sort of manipulative tactic to play up the fact that inventing made Kululu feel useful and like he was a sergeant major again. It made Kululu feel ashamed that he needed to be of some use even now. That he needed to be producing mechanisms even if they were pointless ones.

"That's...Kind of gross." Giroro agreed. "It's very much like something you'd do. Using someone's significant other to use someone."

Kululu didn't deny that he'd do that. He still used Natsumi a lot to get to Giroro. Probably shouldn't complain about something he himself did. He was a hypocrite.

"I agree that Keroro should learn to let go. Learn to let the platoon go. I never expected him to get so attached to this. But I suppose it's too be expected since he doesn't feel that important now that he's no longer our leader." Giroro shrugged. "But really..It's gotten really bad. Like I mentioned a while back that I wanted to move out. You know, just because I thought it was the smart thing to do. I mean I love Natsumi, don't get me wrong, but she's...She's a growing girl. She needs to have a little bit of distance so she can grow into her own person and discover more about herself."

"I want to spend a life together with her but that's only going to happen if I give her time and do the responsible thing of letting us be two individuals before being...like married or anything." Giroro blushed. "I...I mean I do plan on marrying her someday. I'm going to spend the rest of my life with Natsumi. I want to spend the rest of my life with Natsumi." He just wanted to be responsible. He slumped in his seat. "Keroro of course freaked out when he learned I wanted to move." He admitted.

"Ku. You also don't want to embarrass yourself in front of her when you try to learn the ins and outs of pekoponian society, right? I think you should just go for the mutilation. I can promise you that I'll still probably get it on tape and sell it to her." Kululu advised.

Giroro blushed. He and Kululu had been working more on a more long-term pekoponian body for him than using a gun every few hours to zap himself. One of the reasons he wanted to get his own apartment was to learn how to appear pekoponian not just from a gun but to pekoponians as well.

He had to look normal so Natsumi could introduce him to her friends and not be embarrassed if he said anything too alien. He didn't want to bring any shame to her. He just wanted to have a nice life with her.

"Ku, ku, ku!" Kululu just laughed and laughed.

"We were talking about Keroro's problems. Not mine." Giroro reminded.

Kululu nodded. "Oh yeah." He liked making fun of Giroro, even now. "Ku, ku, ku. Listen, the entire platoon knows that Keroro's being pathetic and clinging onto us. We know he's living in the past. But none of us are having real success in standing up against him."

"As someone who's experienced a lot of issues in the past of being pushed into things by Keroro, I think we should all just try harder. You have to remember not to fall for Keroro's words!" Dororo advised.

"Wish I could." Kululu took a sip of some fancy apple cider that he had just to be extra. "But Mois can't. And because he keeps convincing her that he's so pathetic that he needs her to stay to help him out and take care of him, I have to stay because she's here." He just felt increasingly annoyed. Yet again Keroro was somehow still forming a relationship with Angol Mois even though she was now Kululu's girlfriend. He was trying to be supportive of the whole 'family relationship thing' and her trying to be nice, but it was weird and sad to watch.

Kululu knew Keroro was going through some weird issues. But honestly he didn't care in the least bit. For example Keroro would be happy when Kululu would act like a jerk, which he of course was all the time. To Keroro it meant that he wasn't changing, but it was creeping Kululu out just a little bit.

 _I just want to move on from all this and find a new job. But..._ He smiled to himself. _I suppose it's okay. It's finally going to happen._ He had a plan. He just couldn't let Keroro know about any of it. Pretend that everything was the same.

"Hey, Dororo. Why aren't you complaining about Keroro?" Giroro asked. "Isn't he grating on your nerves too, clinging to you?"

Dororo's eyes watered. "He's forgotten to even invite me to these platoon meetings! I come here just because I want to. He's acting exactly the same towards me as he always acts."

"So wait...If you aren't invited to these why are you showing up?" Tamama asked.

"I feel the need to since he specifically didn't invite me." Dororo sobbed.

"I think he isn't clinging to you because you're the same as always, Dororo. You never change." Giroro sighed.

"But I want him to include me!" Dororo cried. "Koyuki's the only one who listens to me. I always complain to her about Keroro and these things in our cabin."

"Is that the only thing you do? Complain about Keroro?" Giroro frowned. "Listen...Dororo...As someone who's been dating a pekoponian girl for a year let me give you a piece of advice. The way to win them over is to not complain about others."

"He's absolutely wrong. The way to bond with girls is to complain about others. Mois and I watch funny Giroro videos all the time. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu gave his own piece of advice. "We call it "Giroro's funniest home videos" we're going to make millions."

Giroro frowned. "I'm trying to be a nice guy and give him relationship advice! Stop ruining it."

"You're right. After all, Dororo sure does need it. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu teased.

Dororo blushed. He had only started dating Koyuki recently, about a month ago working up the courage to ask her out, but Giroro and Kululu were always constantly teasing him. "Honestly I don't think I need advice from either of you. You both….Are kind of bad at relationships." He winced remembering the suit of armor that Giroro had gotten Natsumi for her birthday. Sure she had liked it but was it romantic? He still wasn't sure.

"Ku, ku, ku. Suit yourself, but out of all of us only one of us is getting laid all the time." Kululu shrugged.

Giroro covered his face. "Mois is going to kill you."

Kululu shrugged. He did not fear death.

* * *

Things had changed with a lot of the humans too. Although they weren't nearly as important to Keroro as his platoon and he didn't visit them all the time, things still changed for them.

Koyuki sipped tea and watched one of the streams in her backyard. She was thinking about the flyians. Almost immediately after the events that had happened a year ago Dororo had confessed what he had done.

He hadn't wanted her to know beforehand, he didn't want her to be held responsible if things were discovered, but he was beginning to wonder if he had made the right choice.

"Haru sympathizes with the flyians. He cried when the Keronians got them. He cried more over them than the almost death of his own son." Dororo had told her. "Does that make me a fly sympathizer like Haru? Am I the same as him?" He looked at his own hands. "Oh no! Am I going to abandoned my children in the future to do my duty as a protector of Pekopon?"

Koyuki had hugged him. "You aren't anything like him. I think you made the right choice. Even if it was a tough one. Keron wasn't a good guy. You couldn't let them fully win. And you knew that. Sometimes the hardest path is the right one."

Dororo nodded. He was glad he had told Koyuki, but he knew he could tell no one else.

And so she had kept his secret safe. It was a secret she would take to her grave.

* * *

Momoka was barely around anymore. Although it didn't upset Keroro, it did change Tamama's life quite a bit. He was spending more time at the Hinata House than at the Nishizawa manor because he was lonely.

It wasn't that Momoka wanted to be away. It was just that she had a lot of important things to do. She was the Nishizawa heiress, and as the Nishizawa heiress she had a career and a job.

Without the flyians although a lot of people had gotten healthier, especially the elderly, there had been a lot of negative repercussions. In return for eating the people's lifespan the flyians had protected the planet from alien invasion.

Without them, Earth was attracting a lot more alien attention, it was at a high risk of actually being successfully invaded. And Momoka was not going to let that happen. So she had been running around forming treaties, and using the economy and her money to create huge war machines to protect the planet. Sometimes she would pilot them, sometimes she would just organize others piloting them.

Although she wanted to be there for Fuyuki sometimes she could only send him letters. After all as a Nishizawa she had experience when it came to organizing systems and ordering people around.

Her planet needed her. So a lot of her time was reserved to keeping everybody safe.

* * *

Fuyuki had changed too. At first Keroro had understood the changes.

"I miss her." Fuyuki would complain.

"I can understand. Your friends leaving you, people having their own lives...It's difficult to deal with." Keroro would relate.

"I mean I get to visit Momoka every so often, but...It doesn't feel right when she's not around all the time." Fuyuki would frown. "I miss those days when she was bringing us to big islands or things that I think she purchased for the occult club….Wait, was she using her money to make me happy?"

"Nah, she was just obsessed with you." Keroro would correct.

"Oh….Oh." Fuyuki didn't really understand what that meant. "Well I miss that." He decided after a moment.

"Honestly if I had someone rich going after me like that, I would miss it too." Keroro pat Fuyuki on the back.

"I mean I know she's got a tough job. All I can really do is stay at home and support her because she's been doing amazing things." Fuyuki explained. "But I still miss her." He clutched his legs to himself. "I want...I want to suggest to her that I go with her...That I join her and help her negotiate with aliens…."

Keroro had paled. The subject of Fuyuki leaving always frightened him. He pretended that he was going to let go, but every time he closed his eyes he remembered Fuyuki being swarmed by flyians, multiple times. "Don't." He said in a weak voice.

"But I can't." Fuyuki had admitted. "I've been...Oddly sickly since the incident with the flyians. I think maybe it was all my organs rupturing all at once. But...They felt fine afterwards. But now something feels wrong." His whole body was in pain. Things didn't feel right.

He would get especially sick in hot and sunny weather. He felt like he was drying out. The only time he ever had energy was in the rain.

Fuyuki had been oddly house ridden and sick since the flyian incident. It had been bothering him a lot. Keroro knew Fuyuki felt terrible that all his friends could move on with their lives and he couldn't. Keroro didn't know what was going on. And he wasn't going to ask.

As long as Fuyuki was the same.

* * *

It was that day that Fuyuki sat down next to Keroro, looking rather serious. It had been a year of being sickly and he was tired of it.

"Something wrong, Fuyuki? I was just heading off to the invasion meeting- I mean the party celebrating how great our platoon is." Keroro corrected. "Not invasion, we aren't invading anymore." He had to remind himself.

Fuyuki gave a deep frown. "Sarge. I've been seeing Kululu in secret for the past few months."

Keroro took a step back. "Whoa. Momoka and Mois aren't going to be happy. I didn't know you two were even a thing." Keroro was grossed out.

"No! I mean talking to him. You know about my medical condition? The one that mysteriously came to be after the flyians." Fuyuki was still frowning as he talked.

"Oh yeah, that one. I guess going to Kululu for treatment would be the smartest thing to do." Keroro nodded. "Why'd you do it in secret? There's no reason to be seeking help in secret."

"Because….Because I know it had something to do with you, sarge." Fuyuki confessed. "And...You weren't giving me any answers. You just laughed everything off like you didn't even remember it! Like I had just pretended to die for some sweet tattoo!" He wasn't dissing his new star mark. "You can't even remember what happened. Or you're pretending like you don't know what happened." He was yelling, almost like he didn't trust him.

Keroro took a step back. "Whoa. I'm sure your medical condition has nothing to do with me. I would never make you sick, Fuyuki." He paused, a little worried. "So what did Kululu say?"

"He's been giving me some medicine these past few months to lessen symptoms. But we've finally come to understand what happened." Fuyuki paused. "One year ago the flyians killed me. Somehow I escaped death and you brought me back to life."

"I remember none of that happening, but sure, go on." Keroro tried to be chipper.

Fuyuki rolled his eyes, slightly irritated by how much his friend refused to face the truth or tell him the truth. "We've discovered that my organs...Did in fact rupture from the flyians. All of them. But somehow they regenerated thanks to you. However they've regenerated as keronian organs."

"That's great, Fuyuki!" Keroro clapped. "You always did want to be part alien."

Fuyuki glared. This was not an attitude he was laughing at anymore. "Keronian organs don't belong in a human body. They're not reacting well to my biology because they aren't natural to me. They're...Giving me keronian like properties, but also making me sick. It's extremely painful." Fuyuki bent down offering Keroro his arm. "Touch me."

Keroro looked a little weirded out but touched him. "It feels...Rubbery. It's not soft like normal pekoponian skin is."

"It's developing keronian like properties. And it burns." Fuyuki liked alien things but it hurt and he was tired of it. "I mean I can resonate now. That's super cool. But like...I could do without the pain." He sighed. "I want to go outside. I want to see Momoka. But I'm not a human anymore. But I'm not really a keronian either."

"I'm sorry." Keroro apologized. "I don't...I don't understand how this can happen. You can't just grow keronian organs all willy nilly. Well unless you're Kululu and doing it in a test tube." Had Kululu stolen Fuyuki's organs?

Fuyuki just sighed again as he looked at Keroro, his friend. It was true that he was getting slightly more distant in the past months. Keroro was beginning to realize it had to do with his secret meetings with Kululu.

 _Is Kululu turning Fuyuki against me?_ Keroro wondered. He had been so happy to have the Hinata siblings still in his life. That Fuyuki was still in his life. But now he could see the distance between them. And it wasn't the boy's height.

Fuyuki's eyes had gotten distant. Like he was suspicious of Keroro. Distrusted him. Fuyuki was all about trust. But he looked like he was hurt by Keroro.

"Kululu...Kululu said normal keronians can't bring back people's organs as keronian organs with just a touch...But...But I think you did, sarge." Fuyuki finally said. "So...What are you hiding from me? I'm your best friend. You can tell me the sworn alien secrets. I'm part alien too now! Please tell me what's going on."

"I'm not hiding anything from you!" Keroro replied, taking a step back. Did Fuyuki think he was lying to him? "I didn't do any thing. This has nothing to do with me."

"It...It does. Stop lying, sarge. Please just tell me what's going on. I deserve to know the truth. What happened to my body?" Fuyuki asked.

"I don't know! My grief and trauma must have just granted a miracle or something!" Keroro put his hands up. "That seems to make plenty of sense too me."

He could see the hurt in Fuyuki's eyes immediately. "So...You're not going to tell me the truth. You're...Just going to keep on lying and keep the scientific answer to yourself…." He turned around. "I have to go for a bit, sarge. I need to think about a lot of things. Like trust."

Fuyuki walked away.

"I can't even say normal scientific things! How am I supposed to explain science I don't know about?" Keroro asked yelling after Fuyuki.

But it was too late. Fuyuki was mad at him and gone. The boy was drifting away because of something Keroro didn't understand.

What was happening?

* * *

Haru had changed a lot too. With the flyians all gone, and assumed dead, he had been in grief for a while. They were his best friends after all. But after a while he realized how sick his son was.

Once he had learned what exactly happened to Fuyuki he had felt bad. "Is this somehow my fault?" He once asked himself.

He wasn't sure. But he knew with the flyians gone and being an adult, it was time to act like one. It was time to start making changes in his life.

His daring time of being an adventurer had to end. He needed to be a good father and change for his son. Take care of him since they could no longer go traveling together.

He told Fuyuki stories of his travels every night instead of going off on another adventure.

"Thank you, Haru. I think you're quite suited to being a father." Aki complimented him, kissing him on the cheek. "It's better to have you here I think."

"I'm just so sorry any of this happened. I will change...For all of us. For him and for you." Haru promised. "I'll be a normal person and a normal dad."

Aki hugged him. She was glad that it was his turn to stay at home and care for the children while she focused on her career.

* * *

Tamama was the same as always. Nothing had changed about him. He was still chasing after Keroro, trying to get closer to his beloved Mr. Sergeant.

And most of all he was still jealous of that woman.

 _This isn't fair at all!_ Tamama pounded at a wall as he peered over a corner at Keroro and Angol Mois chatting. _She gets to move on with her life, have someone on the side and she's still monopolizing my Mr. Sergeant's time? Can life get anymore unfair?_

Even though Mois was dating Kululu now she wasn't out of Keroro's life. In fact, Keroro was spending even more time with Angol Mois than before. He kept talking to her, sweet talking her, complimenting her. Making sure she stayed and begging her that he needed her.

Tamama knew why this was of course. It was one of Keroro's tactic that he was using to ensure that Kululu didn't leave the platoon out of desperation. He was sure that Keroro didn't want Mois to leave his life too.

Still, Tamama didn't have to be happy about the sweet talking. It was getting annoying.

 _This wouldn't be as bad if I had changed..._ But he was still the same as always. He had refused to change so that Keroro wouldn't feel threatened. Seeing that Keroro was making things stay the same made him want things to stay the same.

So he had still not confessed his feelings to Keroro. He hadn't worked up the courage yet. Sometimes he would feel like he should, he would get close to telling him. But he would always wimp out at the end and wonder if Keroro would hate him.

"I've tried other methods though to get closer to him. So I'm not fully pathetic." Tamama tried to remind himself. He had started suggesting things like that Keroro should move in with him at the Nishizawa mansion.

He had told Keroro, " _If you don't feel like the Hinata House is home enough to you anymore you should come make a home with me!"_ But Keroro had said that he liked the Hinata House and had remained.

Giroro and Kululu might have been annoyed at Keroro's new clingy attitude. Fuyuki might not have been paying attention to it because he was still angry that Keroro wasn't telling him the truth, and Dororo might have been hurt that he wasn't included in any of the new changes, but Tamama was the only one who truly tried to understand it.

Tamama knew why Keroro was acting so weird. He could see it in Keroro's every movement, every shiver, every concealed look. It was as clear as day when the person he loved most in the world was hurting. _He's trying to stop us all from changing because he's trying to desperately figure out a way to go back to the time he was fully happy._ He knew Keroro remembered the care-free days. The care free days of invasion meeting attempts. The days when they looked at him as the 'Keroro of back then' when they respected him. But more importantly it was the days before Fuyuki almost died.

Keroro associated those days with happiness because he couldn't handle or process the fact that his friend had almost died. He felt that if he kept them in those days he wouldn't have to think about the trauma or it at all, because it would have effectively never happened. Everything would be the same as always, nothing changing. That's why Keroro was trying so hard to keep everyone together, to keep everybody the same and like they were a year ago.

 _He doesn't know how to deal with fear._ The thought made Tamama sad. That the reason Keroro was treating Kululu and Giroro so horribly by forcing them into a life that they didn't want was because he just couldn't process fear.

He had tried to help Keroro several times. Every time he tried to suggest something.

As Keroro approached the corner Tamama was hiding behind, Tamama waved and tried to suggest the usual. Tried to help Keroro out of his unchanging attitude. It started out with normal conversation until Tamama dropped the usual words. "Do you ever wonder if you're clinging onto the platoon so hard because you're lonely and don't know how to cope with fear and think we'll leave you?" Perhaps he said it too bluntly and that's why Keroro always denied it.

"What? No way! I'm a champion of fear! And I'm not lonely! Why would I be lonely when I'm a leader of a great platoon that's going to stick with me forever and never...NEVER ever leave me?" Keroro lashed out, his voice angrier than normal.

It was the same response as always. Keroro always responded with denial, jumping up and down and lashing out. It made Tamama sad to see how impossible it was for Keroro to face the truth, or learn to deal with change.

But that was Keroro for you.

"Mr. Sergeant." Tamama frowned, trying to calm him down. He put his arms down since Keroro was waving them in the air angrily. "I can help you. Let me help you with your problems. I want to listen. I want to be there for you." Tamama offered. "I don't want to see you like this."

Keroro looked like he was going to deny that he was having any problems at all. He was glaring, but finally he eased up. "How?" He just asked. "How would you help?" He asked again. "Let's say I am afraid of change. How would you fix that?"

Tamama thought for a moment. He looked deep in his heart. And he realized he didn't have an answer for that. He didn't have an easy fix or any fix. "I...I don't know." He finally replied.

Keroro pulled away, and walked away sighing as if that was the answer he expected.

 _Maybe that's why I can't tell Mr. Sergeant about my feelings for him. Because that wouldn't help his problems at all. It wouldn't magically fix his fears even if I'd like to think that._ Tamama realized.

He watched Keroro go. _In fact, I bet my feelings would make it worse. After all me suddenly confessing that I liked him after all this time would be one of the biggest changes of all to Mr. Sergeant. He wouldn't know how to deal with it._

 _He's not ready for my feelings. My feelings are a change to him. And Keroro...He doesn't want to change. He wants things to stay the same._ Tamama realized.

 _So for his sake, until he's ready I've gotta keep this a secret. Because he's not ready for it. It would be too big of a change for him._ Tamama couldn't ever confess to Keroro until it wouldn't hurt Keroro. "I just hope he stops being obsessed and clingy towards the past soon..." Because he did want to smooch Keroro eventually.

* * *

Giroro and Kululu were arguing as always at the ex-invasion meeting as they waited for Keroro. Right now they were in a discussion of who had it worse- a conversation insulting each other but also at Keroro's expense.

Tamama wasn't really listening, but he heard the word Keroro so he eventually piped in. "How are we going to help Mr. Sergeant? I know I'm like the best in the platoon but I can't figure out a way to help him. So I gotta get some ideas from the common folk."

Kululu and Giroro glanced at each other. What was Tamama talking about?

"Uhhh...Mr. Sergeant and I were talking. I offered to help him with his fear of change and he asked how and I had nothing." Tamama confessed. "Do you think offering to repair his and Fukki's broken relationship would help?"

Giroro started polishing a gun realizing that Tamama was being serious in his offer to help. "Keroro's got to get stuck out of his own ways on his own. It's not our problem. I tell ya, Keroro's always been like this as long as I remember. He's always had this weird fear of the future and change. He's gotta learn to stop it on his own. He's a grown Keronian for goodness sake!"

"But...But we should help him...He's struggling." Tamama tried to point out.

"Not my problem." Giroro said sternly. "He's always struggling. When will he ever learn on his own to stop?"

Kululu nodded in agreement. "Ku, ku, ku. I wonder if you want to help him for him, Tamama or just yourself. Bet you want Keroro to get better so you can finally move in and make your move on him." Kululu teased. "Pretty selfish if you ask me. But the result will probably be the same of when he's afraid of change or not since you don't even know if he goes for dudes."

"If you're just doing this to get with Keroro, Kululu's right that you should be focusing on that first. Although...I don't personally think Keroro has those inclinations. I mean I've known him all my life and I'm not an idiot." Giroro pointed out.

"Umm...You kinda are." Dororo said awkwardly in the background.

Tamama frowned. It was true that he didn't even know if Keroro was gay or not yet. "Wait, Kululu! Do you know if he's gay?" Tamama said suddenly. "I mean you know everything! You're like a major creep who knows everything about everyone!"

Kululu shrugged. "Might. Might not." Didn't seem like he was going to tell.

Tamama sighed in annoyance.

* * *

Tamama went on a walk outside the meeting room, still thinking about what Kululu had said about him. It was spinning around his head, because he didn't really know the answer.

Did he want to help Keroro because Keroro was struggling? Or because he was selfish and wanted to make a move on him because he was still clinging to the dream of a dangerous love affair?

 _I don't know. I'm such a bad person that I would be after my own benefit, wouldn't I?_ He had made so many mistakes. And what was worst was that those ideas were still in his head. He still didn't like Mois even with what he had done to her.

 _Should I just give up?_ Tamama wondered. Maybe he needed to face the truth like Keroro did. He'd never have the man of his dreams just like they'd never be a real platoon again.

 _I'm not worthy of Mr. Sergeant anyway._ Tamama reminded himself. Keroro was a hero. Keroro was his hero. Keroro had saved people like Fuyuki, Mois and him from the flyians. But while Keroro tried to save people, Tamama had just almost gotten people killed.

 _Mr. Sergeant is my angel. But...But I will always represent the eternal darkness that resonates in my soul._ He felt all the darkness on his hands. The selfishness and the jealousy. Sometimes he accepted it when it benefited him. Sometimes he felt angry with it or disliked it.

But the facts remained: His dark side was just too strong. It didn't deserve Keroro. _After all even after I almost murdered that woman I still hate her for still monopolizing Mr. Sergeant's attention. She's god darn annoying._

He let out a sob. Even if he was just selfish he still didn't want to see Keroro struggle. But he felt bad that he was so selfish and thinking about himself.

He crouched down on the floor and cried, hoping that nobody would hear him.

However someone did. "Tamama?" A hand pat him, "Are you okay? Oh my...You're crying..." It was the person that Tamama had not wanted to find him crying the most- Angol Mois.

Tamama grit his teeth and tried to wipe away the tears. "It's nothing. Go away, woman. You'll probably like that."

Angol Mois frowned. It was true that things had been really tense between them the last year. She hadn't been treating Tamama nearly as nice as usual. Something about almost getting murdered by a guy really didn't make you like them.

Still she didn't want to see Tamama cry. She crouched next to him to be at a better level with him. "But I want to know what's wrong. Maybe I can help? I'm good at helping people. Uncle always says I am."

Tamama groaned. _How can anyone be this annoying?_ He knew she wouldn't leave unless he told her though. "When...When you were in love with Mr. Sergeant..." He finally addressed a bit fearfully. Honestly he was a little worried she still liked Keroro. Nobody really jumped from a dream boat like Keroro to Kululu, right? "Did you ever feel hurt because you couldn't help him? Did you ever feel hurt cuz you couldn't have him to yourself?" He sniffled. "But then you felt that if you told him what you were feeling you'd imprison him with your nasty, selfish, love?"

Angol Mois frowned. That sounded weird. She thought for a moment. "Nah." She finally replied. "I can tell you I never felt anything like that."

 _Oh yeah...She's a girl...So she might not have those thoughts. She just gets to be in her blissfully heterosexual land filled where nothing hurts anybody._ Tamama glared.

"But...To be fair my previous feelings for Uncle were probably very different than your feelings of _friendship_ for him." Angol Mois smiled.

"Ugh." Tamama groaned. She was going to start talking to him about her love for Keroro. He still couldn't believe that she didn't know that he felt more than a friendship for Keroro. It was pretty dang obvious.

"You see what I really really wanted more than anything from Uncle was his approval and attention. I went about that through romance. It...Didn't exactly work in the end, but hey, we all make mistakes." She looked at Tamama for a very long moment as if to say that he had made many. "I...I really wanted him to acknowledge that I existed."

Her voice got softer. "I mean...I really wanted that." She looked away for a moment. "When I first came to this planet and he saw me...It almost felt like he had forgotten that I had even existed in his life. Like "I raised an angol child? Oh yeah! I guess I did!' You could say, has no penny for his thoughts?" Her voice was very sad.

"Listen I don't care about your sad story about how desperate you were for attention because Mr. Sergeant couldn't care less about your life and totally forgot you existed. Don't want to hear it." Tamama mocked. It did make him feel better though to hear about her misery even if he knew that was just pretty average Keroro stuff.

The guy was forgetful. And in this case his forgetfulness had caused an unpredictable response unlike Dororo's bitterness and trauma.

"Aww..." Angol Mois frowned. "I was just trying to make you not worried. Let you understand how I felt."

"...Well I don't care about your feelings." Tamama paused. "What I do care about though...What I am worried about is Mr. Sergeant. I feel like Mr. Sergeant might not ever want to move towards the future." He frowned deeper. "It...It feels like he'll always be stuck in the present."

Angol Mois listened. She understood how Tamama could think that.

"I...I love Mr. Sergeant regardless of his many, many, many flaws." Tamama admitted.

Angol Mois just kept smiling. She obviously didn't know what kind of love he was talking about.

"He's the one who saved me after all. Mr. Sergeant's saved me so many times." He sighed. "But I'm worried we'll never have a future together." He glanced at Angol Mois. _Yuck. I got too vulnerable. Said too much to her! She's just so easy to bounce my own thoughts off of because I'm sure she has no personality._ "But you know, that's obviously all your fault. Mr. Sergeant can't move to the future because you're her and I can't have a future with him because of you too." He tried to play off the truth and his vulnerabilities by blaming everything on Mois as usual.

Mois flashed a rather sympathetic smile. She was confused as to why she was being blamed, but she wanted to reassure Tamama anyway. "Well….Don't you worry then." She finally said, "Soon enough I'll be out of Uncle's life."

Tamama gave her a puzzled look. "What do you mean?" _Is she going to finally stop talking to Mr. Sergeant._

Angol Mois looked like she was reluctant to say anymore, but seeing how wide eyed Tamama was and sad looking he looked, it made her want to tell him. "Kululu and I….Have found someplace to move away to. He's already secured a job and we've signed the lease." She explained. "It was rather difficult to finally gain the courage to leave, but it's for the best. We won't be coming back to Pekopon again."

Tamama's eyes widened and a grin spread across his face. _She's leaving? She's really leaving? It's official?_ He felt like celebrating.

That woman would finally be out of his life for good.

As he smiled and danced and Mois eventually walked away feeling as if she had done her job to cheer up Tamama, he began to realize something. _"We won't be coming back,"_ She had said. Although Tamama was really happy about this, he knew Keroro wouldn't be.

 _Mr. Sergeant's tried so hard to keep that woman and Kululu here. The way she talked...It sounded as if she was keeping it a secret from him. Like she had organized this with Kululu in private and would just leave with no good-byes._ Keroro would be devastated once he learned that Angol Mois and Kululu just up and booked it.

Tamama could see Keroro crying as everything Keroro had built over the year just shattered under him. And Mois and Kululu leaving would send the signals for others to leave his life too, like Giroro.

Despite all of Tamama's selfishness, he realized in that moment that he didn't want Keroro to be crying. He didn't want Keroro to be sad at all. _He's already in the process of losing Giroro. He's lost Fuyuki. He...Doesn't deserve to lose that woman and Kululu too._

He had to tell Keroro. Even if it was supposed to be a secret, he had to give Keroro fair warning. Or at least give Keroro a chance to stop it.

He ran off to tell him.

* * *

Keroro had dropped the gundam model he was building. Without a second thought he ran off to the lab.

Skidding to a halt in front of the doors and pounding them open, he saw exactly what Tamama had warned him of- Angol Mois and Kululu putting things in various boxes as if they were getting ready to move.

 _They...Really didn't even plan to say good-bye to me. Just like the private warned me of._ Keroro realized. Everything felt like it was shaking. And it wasn't the usual earthquakes caused by Mois.

They were trying to leave him. They wanted to leave him. He couldn't let that happen. _They're part of my precious platoon._

Keroro didn't realize his face was already wet with tears, his eyes red and a giant pout on his face. "So it's true! You are trying to leave!" He pointed at them. "I can't believe you'd betray your platoon like that. You two are like family. You belong here. Why would you do something so cruel like leaving the beautiful planet of Pekopon?" Keroro was already jumping up and down yelling.

Kululu just sighed and sat on a box. He was hoping Keroro wouldn't find out, but he had also expected that it might happen sooner or later.

"You both have reasons to stay here. Pekopon has done great things for both of you. It's given you friends, Kululu. Something you didn't have before-" Keroro gave a speech.

"Hey." Kululu frowned.

"Mois, it's become your home away from home. It has gundam models, anime, yummy foods...You love this place!" He accused. "Shame on you both for leaving it. Shame on you both for leaving me. I thought you wanted to be a good niece, Mois? And Kululu, you're our sergeant Major! How are we going to do anything without our intelligence officer? We'll be useless without you!" Keroro drubbed up that the platoon could not function without Kululu and Kululu knew it.

Kululu just sighed again. _Just gotta ignore him._ He glanced at Angol Mois. He really hoped she could do the same. She was a little more delicate when it came to Keroro's manipulation tactics. At least Kululu realized he was getting manipulated. He wasn't quite sure she was fully convinced. Also he was more than a little worried she'd side with Keroro over Kululu.

"Uncle." Angol Mois crossed her arms. "I need to get off of Pekopon. The thing that's most important to me is having planets to destroy. You don't want me to stay here and take that out on Pekopon, do you?" She pointed out. "Gundam models aren't nearly as important to me as the thrill of planetary destruction...Ooh I can just imagine that nice planet cracking sound."

Kululu grinned. _I was afraid for nothing. I should have had a talk with Mois about seriously leaving long long ago._ He just kind of smiled as he watched her talk about planetary destruction. _I'm so glad this is my girlfriend._

"And Kululu wants to go on with his life as a scientist and inventor." Mois tried to explain. "Pekopon's technology..."  
"It sucks. It really sucks." Kululu explained. "I need a better place for resources."

Keroro just frowned. "You could….You could I don't know...Invent a teleporter or something so you could go across the universe and stay here in the base like always! This base is your home, guys. You can't just abandon your home. A home...Is like a lab shaped head."

Angol Mois frowned. "Uncle….I know I might cry a little when I say this, but the planetary destruction thing isn't even the most important issue that made us leave."

"It isn't?" Keroro asked. "Well tell me what it is! I can fix it! Is it something I did?" Keroro threw himself to the ground to over dramatically cry.

Angol Mois pat his back and shook his head. "The facts are that this base is small. The lab barely has a functioning kitchen. It's just got one large curry pot."

"Ku, I still think the new place is fine with just that. Do we really need to eat other foods?" Kululu asked.

Mois nodded, and glared a bit at him. "I told you I really want to eat more healthy foods. Like lemon, pickle smoothies."

Kululu just shook his head. He didn't get the non-curry lifestyle.

Angol Mois glanced back at Keroro. "This lab is too small for two people. And besides..." Her face darkened. "The lighting is absolutely terrible."

"I keep telling you, it's fine." Kululu reassured.

"The truth of the matter is, Uncle, Kululu and I have been getting into petty fights over lighting and interior decorating. We've gotta get out of here before one of us does something drastic, like takes over the house or blows up said house." Angol Mois just pointed upward at the Hinata House above.

"So...Wait...You're leaving me….Just because Kululu won't install some stupid lights in his lab?" Keroro asked. "That's what got you to finally stop listening to me?"  
Angol Mois looked serious as she nodded. "Lighting is important." She went over to Kululu and held is hand. "Me and Kululu really want to be together. We want to live a life together. But to do that we need a bigger place before I- one of us, kills all of Pekopon."

"I think the correct term is kills someone. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu corrected. He kissed Mois on the cheek. He didn't mind her destroying all of Pekopon though.

Keroro's eyes just widened. The reasoning that Angol Mois was going was so incredibly stupid but it still made him sad. "Come on, Mois!" He knew that if he convinced her to stay Kululu would too, "Please stay...I need you." He whimpered, throwing himself at her feet. "We've always had lots of fun together. We could have fun as a platoon together. You know, I've always thought of you as our unofficial fifth—sixth platoon mate." Keroro just cried. "Pekopon's such a beautiful place. It's got so many merits."

Angol Mois didn't say anything as he cried.

"It'll be fine if you stay here forever. Then you and I and Kululu can be all together forever. We can be a platoon forever...Please. I need you. I love you. You're my family." Keroro just sobbed. Losing Mois would be like losing his father all over again. "P-please...Please stay here forever. I need you to stay so much." He pulled himself up, using Mois's leg as leverage. He just looked up at her pathetically.

Mois just stared at him.

Kululu sighed again. _This is it. He's never said that "I love you" thing. She'll back out immediately now._

"No." She finally said, for once putting her foot down from Keroro's pleas towards her. "I'm done with this planet. I do not care about it."

"But- But it's your home. It's beautiful-" Keroro tried to explain.

"Uncle. You're confusing me with someone else. I have never found this place to be my home. I hate Pekopon. I hate the fact that I wasn't allowed to destroy it. I always have." Her voice was stern. "There's never been any beauty to this planet to me except the core and the sound of it cracking."

Keroro shivered, a bit nervous at how serious she was. "But….I need you."

"I don't care if you need me." Angol Mois replied. "I need me more." She finally stood up for herself.

Kululu clapped. He was just kind of eating popcorn at this point. Keroro was clearly fighting with Mois more than him. He could tell that Kululu wasn't budging on leaving.

Keroro just shook his head, his eyes foggy and dazed. _I can't let them leave._ He did something stupid and moved forward to open one of the packed boxed and start unpacking it. He'd keep them here even if it meant physically.

Angol Mois slammed the box shut, and slapped away Keroro's hand. "You are not part of our lives anymore. Let us move on. You could say, let dead dogs lie?"

Keroro just sobbed. "No! I can't let you leave! If you leave then everything will crumble away! H-he'll die again, the platoon will be f-finished! You're just..You're just being selfish leaving me!"

Angol Mois wouldn't stand for that, and quickly started arguing with Keroro as he tried to run around the lab desperate to find something that would get the two of them to stay.

The show of Angol Mois and Keroro arguing was amusing, but eventually Kululu got up. "We're leaving. And that's final. There's nothing you can do about it. Even if you convince Mois to stay so I'll stay, I'll just convince her to go." He pointed out. "I'm learning to talk more openly to her about issues. And our main one is being here."

Angol Mois nodded.

"So we're going. Ku, ku, ku. Bye bye." Kululu pressed a button and a large metal boot appeared, and kicked Keroro out of the lab.

Keroro just stared at the closed door. They were gone. And they were never coming back.

* * *

 _I...I still have Giroro and Fuyuki...They might be having problems and trying to leave, but they haven't yet._ Keroro reminded himself. Fuyuki couldn't leave. He was too sick.

He just rocked himself back and forth. But soon enough he ran into Giroro.

"Keroro. I'm not going to go about this the coward's way." Giroro stood up. "I'm going. Found a nice apartment. A murder took place there so it was cheap. Poor pansy should have taken the murderer out like the soldier's way. That isn't happening to me." Giroro boasted. "I thought I should tell you so you weren't surprised. After all, I'll probably only be back to visit Natsumi. I need to be focusing my time on studying the pekoponian culture to appear 'normal'."

"Koyuki can help you!" Dororo volunteered.

"She's not exactly the expert on normal. I am going to be taking a reintegration class with her though. I'm just hoping we don't fail together and bring the other one down." Giroro sighed.

Keroro's eyes just widened. _First Kululu, then Giroro? What's next, Dororo?_

He couldn't see Dororo anyway. Perhaps Dororo had already left?

Dororo waved frantically in the background. He was there as always.

 _Fuyuki. Fuyuki's still here. He'll stay._ Keroro reminded himself. He had to keep Fuyuki there at whatever cost.

Even if Fuyuki was mad at him, at least he was alive and safe.

* * *

"Sarge." Fuyuki's voice was curt and formal. He was looking at the floor, still a little mad at Keroro.

"Fuyuki." Keroro smiled.

"I've...Been offered a research opportunity at the Nishizawa facilities to understand my condition. I'd be going there to stay with mostly Momoka. They'll give me lots of supplies to research aliens while they research me." Fuyuki paused. "I can't afford to say no since you won't tell me anything about what happened to me."

Keroro's eyes widened. It was happening. _They're all leaving me._ "No. No." He shook his head.

"If you would tell me what happened and how to treat it, this wouldn't have to be. But I don't have a choice." Fuyuki replied. Despite not having a choice he sounded a little happy. "I get to see Momoka." He smiled.

Keroro tried not to cry as Fuyuki walked away.

* * *

Keroro gathered his platoon mates up and pleaded with them to stay. "We're the Keroro Platoon. Now and forever. We've got to stay together and here."

They all shook their heads at him. He made plenty of pathetic points as to why they stayed but none of them did, even to listen to the lecture.

They all just walked away, one after another, Kululu, then Giroro.

Finally only Tamama was left to see Keroro repeatedly slam his head onto the table to cry.

Keroro just cried and cried, but eventually he tilted his head to see that Tamama was still in the room, patiently looking at him. "You're still here?" He asked.

Tamama nodded. "I told you...I'm here for you. I want to help."

That stopped Keroro's crying. He just kind of stared and thought for a moment. "Everybody else left. But you stayed."

Tamama nodded. "That's because I'm the best platoon member! And the only loyal and good one. You should praise me."

Keroro sat up. He scooted closer to Tamama, still sniffling. "I've...I've been pretty selfish, haven't I?" _They deserved to go on with their own lives. After all, I went on with my life during the invasion. I used our money on gundam models instead of the job._

Tamama frowned. Was Keroro finally dealing with change?

"You know..." Keroro whimpered, sniffling. "I have faults galore. I'm afraid...I'm afraid of so many things...I never even put on fake bravery. I make Giroro do things instead so I don't have to face big tough opponents." Keroro confessed. "I might be the most flawed keronian in existence."

Tamama put his hand on Keroro's back. "It's all right. We accept you for who you are. Flaws and all." He didn't deny that Keroro had flaws. Many, many flaws.

Keroro looked at him oddly. He was trying to give an important speech and here Tamama was accidentally insulting him. He ignored it though. "But...Even though I'm so flawed….I don't want to bring you down into it. I treated Kululu, Giroro and Fuyuki badly because I wanted them to stay. So...I'll do the right thing. You don't have to stay Tamama. I won't force you to stay by my side."

Tamama frowned. This kind of change was not what he wanted. _This is the opposite of him embracing good change. He's embracing it too much and telling me to leave!_

"You...You had a whole future ahead of you, but I ruined it by not invading and proving Keron wrong about us. You could have gotten a second chance. You're young. Maybe you can still go back to them and get your job back." Keroro said hopefully, "We did catch the flyians after all." He looked at Tamama and squeezed his hand. "Go. You don't have to be part of the Keroro Platoon any longer. I'm letting you go." Keroro gave him a smile, an almost sad one. Although this was difficult for him he wanted to give Tamama a chance.

Tamama was silent as Keroro told him to go. He just listened as Keroro cried out his fears and kept insisting that Tamama should leave, over and over again since Tamama wasn't saying anything and just staring.

 _If I said I was happy here by his side he might not listen. He's too sad._ He had to prove it to him. He knew fully that he wanted to stay by Keroro's side. But Keroro didn't.

Without thinking about it too much, or putting much thought into his actions Tamama leaned forward and kissed Keroro on the lips. He closed his eyes hoping that actions really did speak louder than words to Keroro. That Keroro understood how much he really wanted to stay by his side.

 _He can't confuse this now can he? I want him to understand just how happy I am to be right where I am._ Tamama tried to wrap his arms around Keroro to tug him in closer.

Keroro let out a confused muffle. It was only a few seconds of a kiss before Keroro pulled away. He was very, very confused. He just looked at Tamama puzzled. "Umm...What did that mean?"

 _God. I forgot he's a huge idiot. How can he still be confused about my feelings when I freakin kissed him?_ Tamama bopped him on the head. "It means I'm staying." He said sternly.

Keroro pulled back and looked at Tamama. He really looked at him, trying to figure out what the heck was going on. _Wait...If he kissed me….And he heard about how much I'm afraid of the platoon leaving.._ Keroro gulped.

He had figured things out. _Tamama's trying to be a good friend! He's saying that he'll stay with me in whatever way I need. Oddly enough he chose the romantic way over anything else, but he must think I need that right now!_ Keroro realized in horror.

He was afraid. Tamama was making a mistake. He was using himself as just a tool to make Keroro feel better. He was essentially saying ' _Use me in whatever way you want. Winkie face. I'll stay with you and won't abandon you.'_ But Tamama trying to use his body to heal Keroro made Keroro sad. What about poor Tamama? He appreciated the gesture, but he didn't want to be that kind of person.

He might have made some mistakes clinging onto Kululu and Giroro, but he wasn't going to make the same mistake with Tamama. He would not use Tamama. He would never use Tamama. _I won't hurt him. He's good. He doesn't deserve this._ "You should go." He instructed. He had to save Tamama from doing something foolish.

Tamama immediately looked hurt, almost as if his heart had been stabbed. He didn't look all that surprised though. "O-okay..." He didn't fight against Keroro's request. _He...He figured it out...And he immediately rejected me and sent me off. Should I have been expecting anything different?_ He walked out, following where Giroro and Kululu had gone.

Keroro sighed. He had done the right thing. Now Tamama could also move on with his life.

"Why did you do that?" Dororo asked, still in the room. Everybody had forgotten that he was still there and he had watched the whole thing. "Why did you cast Tamama aside? Didn't you just say that you wanted the platoon in your life?" He was confused why he had suddenly decided against that.

Keroro glanced at Dororo, finally noticing him. He was too sad to ask him when he had gotten there. "Because….I didn't want Tamama to become what the platoon has symbolized to me this last year."

Dororo walked over to Keroro to get closer to listen. Keroro looked like he was ready to talk. He was finally talking.

"A distraction. I...I guess I was trying not to realize it...But this last year I've been using the platoon as a distraction, clinging onto them. I didn't want Tamama to be forced into that same role. He's been so helpful to me. So much of a good friend. He didn't deserve that." Keroro shivered. "I care about him. I didn't want to hurt him."

Dororo nodded. He didn't know how to tell Keroro straight to his face that he had done the wrong thing and was an idiot, so he decided to focus on the bigger issue- using the platoon as a distraction. "Is...Is it because of what happened to Fuyuki? I can understand that. Seeing your best friend die...or almost die. It could traumatize someone for life. I'm sorry that we weren't focusing more on the fact that you were traumatized."

Keroro shook his head. "It….It isn't really...It isn't remembering when Fuyuki fell down and….And when he looked dead." Keroro was shivering, as if thinking about the real issue.

"It isn't?" Dororo asked. He had made the wrong assumption?

"That's bad and sad, but he's here now. What...What really scares me is what happened after Fuyuki died." Keroro admitted.

"After?" Dororo asked.

"I...I don't remember much, but I remember the power. The immeasurable amount of power in my fingertips. Keronians...No any creature shouldn't be meant to have that amount of power." Keroro's voice had a tremble in it. "Even Kululu couldn't figure it out. He eventually asked me straight up, what was I?" Keroro laughed. He hadn't usually been asked what he was. He was a normal keronian.

"Well you know what they say, Keroro, with great power comes-" Dororo tried to quote.

Keroro shook his head, not listening. "Ever since then I've felt like I myself am disappearing. Not the platoon leaving. It's me that's going somewhere. It...It's scary...It feels wrong...I don't want to be erased. I don't want to disappear." Keroro was crying a little bit again. "But...If I keep the platoon near me….If I make everything exactly like my old life, I'll stay. I'll still be Keroro." Keroro insisted. "That's how I feel. I mean I know that's a silly fear to have but I just...I feel like I'll vanish someday."

Dororo pat Keroro's head, trying to comfort him like a mom would. "You've become existential. You're having some sort of existential crisis. Don't worry, a lot of philosopher's think about this sort of stuff. Although they don't become nearly as frightened." He thought about something for a second. "It's normal, Keroro. What you're feeling is just a normal worry from trauma. That you aren't the same because you've been traumatized."

Keroro wiped away his tears, sniffling. "Really? So what I'm feeling is normal?" Keroro asked surprised.

Dororo nodded. "Surrounding yourself with friends is a good tactic but I think you've gone about it the wrong way forcing them into staying with you, you've also made mistakes by lashing out and sending Tamama off when he wanted to help you. You need to get on the healthy path of healing." Dororo instructed. "Talk to people and confess your worries. They'll support you. And remember….The flyian situation is done. It's over and done with. Nobody else will ever be hurt from those creatures." His voice sounded like he was concealing something, almost like he was wishful.

Keroro smiled and nodded. "I sure hope you're right and that's true. I don't want to ever see a fly again."

* * *

Keroro did not take Dororo's advice. Instead he felt much too guilty that he had made a mistake with Tamama and pushed him away.

Keroro stayed in his room, thinking about how he had no one anymore. _Nobody except gundam models that is._ He reminded himself. He just built gundam model after gundam model, stacking boxes upon boxes in front of the door so he couldn't fully leave.

Eventually into the second day of just being lonesome and alone lost in his thoughts, he started naming the models. "This one represents Fuyuki….This one's Giroro….Kululu...Angol Mois….And this one's Tamama." He named obviously the most expensive as Tamama. He had to be high maintenance.

He looked at the model he had named after Tamama. It looked nothing like his ex-platoon mate. It was a giant robot model after all, but eventually he started seeing Tamama's face in it. The black soulless eyes reminded him of Tamama's cute black ones, little things like that.

After hours of building Gundam models, and sometimes even complimenting them and talking to them in his friend's voices, he threw his modeling tools down and hugged the Tamama model.

"WAHHHH!" Keroro just started crying. He missed Tamama. He wanted Tamama to be around. _I know Dororo said I made the wrong choice, but I know I made the right one. After all Tamama was letting me use him as a distraction. He..He was even so desperate to help me that he kissed me._ He was positive he made the right choice to send Tamama so he could grow on his own. _Still...Making the right choice….Sure hurts a lot._

It was a moment of weakness that Keroro grabbed his phone and dialed Tamama's number. He didn't have anything to say to him, he didn't want to say anything to him, but he just wanted to hear his voice.

"You've reached ex-second class Private Tamama, the soon to be ruler of the Nishizawa company and maybe the world. If you're that woman hang up and never call, back but if you're anyone else, you're welcome because you're hearing the voice of the cutest keronian of all! Please leave your message after the beep!" Tamama's voicemail addressed.

Keroro smiled. He didn't leave a message, but he just kind of liked listening to Tamama's voice. It sounded normal.

He kept hanging up and calling, trying to hang up before Tamama could hear his pathetic sniffling on the other end.

Eventually Tamama actually answered the phone. "Hello? Who is it?"

 _It's Tamama. In real life Tamama!_ Keroro realized. His hand froze up, forgetting to hang up. He let out a few pathetic whimpers.

"Wait...I'd know that pathetic crying anywhere. Mr. Sergeant? Are you calling me?" Tamama asked.

Keroro tried not to be too embarrassed that Tamama had recognized him on cry alone. "N-no!" Keroro said in a high pitch voice, trying to pretend it wasn't him.

He knew Tamama was probably rolling his eyes on the other end. "I can't believe you! First you cast me aside and now you want me back or something or just want things to be normal? You suddenly changed your mind?" He sounded irritated and mad. _This isn't fair. He breaks my heart and then tries to call and play it cool?_

"I-I'm sorry...I'm s-sorry…" Keroro let his high pitch voice drop. Tamama really sounded mad. He just started sobbing loudly again.

Tamama sighed. _I shouldn't be too harsh on him. I know I have a bit of a temper that snaps all of a sudden...But I made him cry._ "Shhhh...It's okay. It...It was my fault...I'm sorry. You're forgiven." Tamama said suddenly. _I shouldn't have forced my feelings onto him and ruined what we had._

"I'm...I'm forgiven?" Keroro was confused. He was still sobbing.

"It's all right." Tamama paused. "You have a lot of faults..."

"I know." Keroro sighed. Tamama didn't have to tell him twice.

"But despite all of your faults, I still love you. I always will. Because you saved me." He was silent for a moment. "It doesn't matter if you don't return those feelings. I'll still stick by your side and be your friend." He reassured.

Keroro felt himself smile a little. Dororo might have been right after all. Tamama would be by his side. _That's right. I saved him. So even if I mess up sometimes he'll still be thankful for that one moment. He'll still idolize me and love me as a leader._ Keroro felt himself holding the phone tightly to listen to Tamama more, to be closer to him.

He let out another cry. He was just so happy that Tamama had forgiven him. "I-I...I'm sorry..." He started sobbing again.

"I'll be right over." Tamama decided, seeing that Keroro was just continuing to cry without him. He hung up immediately and booked it.

And all Keroro could do was wait.

* * *

The door was thrown open, sending boxes of gundam models flying but for once Keroro didn't care. Tamama went over to his crying friend and threw his arms around him to hold him.

Keroro rested his head on his chest and just sobbed. He just...He felt so lonely.

"There, there." Tamama would say, sometimes rather tiredly and sometimes trying to be supportive. He just pat his back, trying to be there for him.

As time went on and Keroro's crying ebbed away to just soft whimpers, he began to wonder if he deserved this. _Do I deserve Tamama's attention?_ _Why is he giving me so much attention? I clearly don't deserve this kind of patience._

He glanced up at Tamama. Tamama seemed oddly happy to just be holding him. He was smiling a little bit.

" _I still love you. I always will."_ The line that Tamama had said to him over the phone echoed in Keroro's ears. Suddenly Keroro's lips felt hot as he remembered that yes Tamama had in fact kissed him. When Tamama had said he loved him did he mean as a subordinate and a role model or...In fact something else?

Tamama would someday move on with his life. So he wouldn't always love Keroro as a role model and leader. So did that mean by default that Tamama was talking about something else? _Wait...Is Tamama in love with me?_ Keroro's eyes widened.

That couldn't be true? Could it? There might have been a few hints that Tamama felt that way, but he was just reading too much into it.

But if...If Tamama did feel that way. If Tamama was in love with him...Had that meant that when Keroro was 'doing the right thing and letting Tamama go' he had in fact been rejecting him? Had Tamama not wanted to use himself as a distraction at all? Did he not realize that Keroro had asked him to leave because he wanted Tamama to be free of him? Did Tamama think that if Keroro had asked him to come back it meant that he was accepting him and wanted to kiss him?

 _Did he come back because...he wanted to kiss me? To form a relationship with me?_ Keroro could feel his face getting pink. He was sure glad he was hiding his face on Tamama's chest and Tamama could not see. Although he was sure that made the whole situation worse that he was in Tamama's arms getting some very intimate comforting.

 _No...That can't be it. I just...I just don't know. All I know is that Tamama's here. He's sticking by my side._ He felt himself hug Tamama tighter, touch his arms just to make sure he was still there and that Tamama's arms were in fact secured around him.

Tamama made sure they were more secure, not knowing at all what Keroro was thinking about.

 _I...I don't even know if I'm ready for a relationship though. If...If he does want something like that...I'm kind of in a bad place. Dororo said I was dealing with trauma and questions about my existence or something after all._ He didn't know if he was ready for something like that. And when he closed his eyes to picture it, it just kind of made his stomach feel all fluttery and his heart beat a ton faster so that must have meant he wasn't ready to think about it.

 _I don't even know if I heard Tamama right. I shouldn't be thinking about it so hard._ Keroro tried to ration to himself. It would certainly suck if he decided he wanted to be in a relationship with Tamama and it turned out that Tamama hadn't meant that at all.

 _I guess...I'm just happy that Tamama came back._ He hugged him tighter. _I like him. I like him a whole lot. He's very important to me._ He just didn't know in what way. Did he like him in a friendly way or something completely different?

He wasn't entirely sure. So he tried to push the thoughts away to think deeper on later. He'd sort out his own jumble of feelings later.

The door opened as Tamama and Keroro were embracing. It was Giroro who walked in.

"Giroro?" Keroro pulled himself away from Tamama. "You're back!" He looked at Tamama and hugged him. "You must have brought the platoon back together, Tamama! You did great!" He complimented.

Tamama frowned, "Yeah...I must have..." He said awkwardly. He glared at Giroro. _You interrupted! Mr. Sergeant was on a roll! He was holding me a lot...It was all romantic here! I bet he might have accidentally even kissed me if you hadn't walked in. RUINER!_ Tamama just glared daggers.

Giroro cleared his throat awkwardly trying to ignore the mental death threats Tamama was sending him. "I'm not back because of Tamama." He replied. "I'm back because a Keron ship landed on my apartment."

"...That's some major bad luck." Keroro frowned. "Was your tent in it?"

"Of course it was! Where else am I going to sleep?" Giroro replied.

"...A bed?" Tamama suggested.

Giroro looked at him like he was crazy. "Anyway, your father was in the ship Keroro. He's waiting outside the house right now and asked me to fetch you."

Keroro's eyes widened. _My father? He's back?_ "Why didn't he just go directly to me if he was looking to reconnect? He knows where I live."

"The platoon...Or ex-platoon has started being contacted by Keron forces. I heard from Kululu and Dororo that they got a message from the colonel himself." Giroro explained. "They've all been looking into where our old leader is Sergeant Keroro. I suspect there's a job for us. We all suspect that they have a new job for us."

"But we're exiled! Why do they need us?" Keroro stood up, super confused. He was going to go out and ask his father himself. "Come on, Tamama."

All Tamama could do was nod as Keroro held his hand and dragged him along.

* * *

Keroro held Tamama's hand as he went outside to see his father. His father stood outside waiting for him next to another keronian that Keroro recognized had been on the previous ship- some dark green keronian named Agugu. Keroro was pretty sure he had been an intern or something at the time of the flyians. Pretty impressive to be an intern of the top keronians, he must have raised in the ranks to be hanging around the colonel so young and new.

Agugu looked like he had a higher position now. He had fancier boots and a new cape which must have symbolized position.

Keroro's father's eyeridge raised instantly noticing Keroro and Tamama holding hands. "Is that appropriate-"

Agugu raised his hand to silence Keroro's father. "It's probably nothing. Just ignore it." He replied.

Keroro's father nodded, following the advice.

"Dad." Keroro addressed, "What are you doing here-?"

Agugu and the Demon Sergeant didn't seem to hear him. "Have all of the members been found and brought to our ship?"

Keroro's father shook his head. "As soon as we showed up for some reason Zeroro hid. No signs of him anywhere. But we'll locate him soon."

He was unaware that Dororo had immediately assumed that he was going to be brought home for execution due to treason against Keron for releasing the flyians. He didn't want anymore dealings with Keron and immediately feared that his betrayal had been discovered.

"Who are you?" Tamama asked Agugu having never been good with the higher ups names. "I thought this was some sort of social visit."

Agugu shook his head. "My name is Agugu. You met me when I had just entered the council meetings. I was pretty much an intern back then. But I've raised in the ranks since then. I outrank the colonel now." He said proudly.

The Demon Sergeant looked like he had mixed feelings about someone so much younger than him outranking him.

"We've managed to locate four of the members of the Keroro Platoon. Our forces should just now be meeting with ex-sergeant major Kululu." Agugu addressed.

"Sent someone else to do it, eh?" The demon sergeant smiled. "I'm still glad I'm not in that group."

Agugu shot him a glance like it was not time to talk about Kululu being a jerk.

"What's going on?" Keroro asked confused.

"I will use the Keroro Platoon in whatever way necessary if it means I can get what I want." Agugu said sternly. "You have a mission."

"But...We're exiled. We're no longer part of Keron. We can't have a mission..." Keroro was startled.

Keroro's father smiled. He walked forward and took his son's hand. "Keroro...It's time for you to come home."

Keroro just had a mixture of surprise and confusion on his face. _Home? Keron's still my home? They want me back?_ What about getting rid of them? The lies?

What was going on?

"I'm...I'm banished. We're banished...We can't come home..." Keroro insisted.

"The supply of flyians have run out. They're all gone." Agugu tried to give Keroro a little bit of information. "For some reason there was less then expected."

Keroro looked frightened. "It's not our fault! We caught them just like you asked. Please don't punish us."

Giroro, Keroro and Tamama could tell that even though Agugu hadn't said outright that he suspected treason from the Keroro platoon, those unspoken accusations were there. Keroro became worried for his life and the lives of his platoon mates.

Agugu looked amused. "I'm sure they just didn't breed as much as we expected." He tried to get Keroro to disengage. "Don't worry, we're not going to attack Pekopon or anything. There are no more signs of the flyians here."

Keroro's fists relaxed a bit.

"If you're not here to punish us or to attack Pekopon what are you here for? What do you want?" Giroro asked.

"We need Keroro's help." Keroro's father replied honestly.

Keroro took a startled step back. "Mine?" Why his? He was confused? He couldn't help anyone.

"Follow me. We'll be going into the ship now." Agugu ordered. "Giroro, Tamama. You two come too. We need all the Keroro Platoon members to be here for the debriefing."

They all glanced at each other rather confused, but they followed Agugu.

Giroro had a large smile on his face, barely able to contain his excitement at the aspect of having another military job. He pretended that he was playing it cool though as he followed Keroro and Tamama.

Tamama just looked confused, remarking every now and then that his head was spinning.

And Keroro? He just felt irritated. _Dad didn't even come here to say hello to me._ Keroro thought bitterly to himself. He was confused, but mostly sad.

Even when needed he was probably still a disappointment to his father.

He just followed his father back to the life of a Keronian soldier.

* * *

 **Tbh I'd really like to write a story about Kululu's and Angol Mois's domestic life and Keroro just being way too weirded out about it and trying to stop it from happening. It could be fun, but idk if I'd ever actually write a story like that. I'm not that great with writing domestic fluff.**

 **Anyway I hope you enjoyed some of the Kerotama. This story definitely needs more of it.**

 **Please review.**


	13. Keroro

**So the entirety of this story was made with this chapter in mind. We're getting into the real plot, with real secrets revealed.**

 **In the original summary 10 years had passed, not 1. It was a bit weird so I changed it to one year.**

 **Mostly this is a talking chapter. Not very long and not much happens.**

* * *

Keroro, Giroro and Tamama headed entered the ship. It was pretty large. Large enough to take out an entire apartment building at least.

 _I wonder what's going on? But I'm sure we'll get an explanation soon._ Keroro reassured himself. His hand was still clutching at Tamama's.

Tamama gave a squeeze of support and smiled at him.

Keroro noticed Kululu sitting at a large table, his arms crossed. He didn't look too happy to be there, his face furrowed in distrust and overall concern and stress.

"You made it incredibly clear to me that you wanted nothing to do with me. I'm over that, I ditched my former platoon. So stop lumping me in together with them and dragging me back here!" Kululu slammed his hands on the table trying to argue with some soldiers.

"That is not an option. You were a part of this platoon so you always will be. You are needed once again." Someone said.

Keroro's father walked up to the soldier trying to keep Kululu calm. "Any luck finding Zeroro?"

"We sent a squad out to look for him. They should be arriving back soon any minute." The soldier replied.

Agugu glanced at the door. As if on cue, several soldiers walked in, dragging Dororo by his legs. "Let me go!" Dororo cried. "I'm not going back! I told you I have nothing to do with all this. P-please...I'm living a happy life. Please don't execute me." He was trying to desperately cling to the floor to not be dragged in.

"Execute?" Agugu just raised a brow. "We don't want to execute you. We just need your help. We wanted to give a mission to the former Keroro platoon."

Dororo stopped clinging desperately to the floor. "O-oh." He had thought they had discovered his treason and had run at the first chance he had. He jumped out of the Keronians gripped and stood presentably. "My apologies then." He brushed some dirt off his body.

Agugu just looked at him strangely but shook his head. Dororo being weird was not what he had come for.

He looked at the Keroro Platoon and gestured for them to take their seats at the large circular table. "You want me to explain what's going on, don't you?" Agugu asked.

"Well….I'd kinda prefer Dad too..." Keroro glanced at his father who was acting a bit off...He hadn't even come to visit or say hello to him. It was like he had grown even more emotionally distant since the last time he saw him. "But you'll do." Keroro took his seat and looked at Agugu.

He didn't really know what to think of him. Agugu had been with the colonel last time he had seen him. He had seemed rather impressive, but he also seemed to have nothing to do with the fake invasion plot. Agugu hadn't really done anything wrong to the Keroro Platoon. So what did he want with them now?

Agugu smiled as if seeing that the platoon was trying to figure him out and his motives. "My name is Agugu. General Agugu." Agugu explained. "Last time you all met with me I was quite a lower rank. Still I was allowed the privilege of being in important council meetings to learn more about the military under more experienced and older members. I learned about important secrets such as your mission as a platoon and about the flyians. The colonel especially took an interest in me and tried to be a mentor figure to me. It really humbled me and I learned a lot." Agugu explained.

"We didn't come here for your life story. Ku, ku, ku. We want to know what you want with us." Kululu explained.

Agugu stared at him. "I'm giving you a little background." He tried not to be too insulted by Kululu, just brushing him off. "Since we last met I raised in the ranks incredibly. I worked my butt off. This is especially important because I happen to be a distant relative of the late Emperor. I am part of his bloodline."

"Wait, you're royalty?" Keroro was impressed. He wondered if he should bow.

Agugu looked amused. "Not really. I'm just related to the Emperor of our planet." He tried to recollect his thoughts. "My blood is important though because I've gained a lot of support to become the next emperor. And it's something I've decided to pursue for our planet's sake."

Giroro frowned. "I hate to agree with Kululu, but really, what do you want with us?" Giroro repeated again. "You can't possibly want the support of a disgraced exiled platoon to win over the populace?"

"Giroro's right for once in his life." Kululu agreed. Giroro glared at him. "We have absolutely nothing to do with Keron's populace anymore." His voice sounded angered, or concerned in some way. "You had no reason to drag me into this, or drag Mois off."

"Mois's here?" Keroro asked. She was nowhere to be found in this room!

"Yeah, somewhere in one of the other rooms. They wanted to ask her some questions or something like that. If you ask me the whole thing strikes me the wrong way." Kululu looked very suspicious. "What did you want with Mois?"

Agugu just sighed again. Why was the Keroro platoon so incredibly confrontational? "We have no battle with your Angol. She really had nothing to do with your exile." He reassured. "She's done nothing wrong-" He thought for a moment. "To us in the last decade." He quickly corrected. Mois had done plenty wrong. Didn't want to be inaccurate. "We've just been monitoring her a bit since we always want to keep tabs on what the lord of terror is up to. It's just smart. It would be a problem for us if she destroyed a planet we were planning to invade just because she felt like it on a whim after all." He paused hoping that was a good enough answer for Kululu, "We just wanted to ask her some questions. That's all."

Kululu eased up a little bit, sitting down in his chair instead of glaring at Agugu. That seemed to make enough sense.

"Anyway..." Agugu was annoyed that he had been interrupted so many times. "While you were away from Keron and exiled many things have happened. The emperor died for one thing before he could produce any heirs." Agugu explained. "No...Died perhaps isn't the best term. He was murdered."

"By who?" Giroro shot up in worry. Even though he was an exiled Keronian, he still felt some pride and love for the planet he had given his soul to protect. The emperor especially was a symbol to Keron of the very top. Any Keronian with even a shred of loyalty left in them would be concerned when they heard he had died.

"The Vipers." Agugu said with distaste. "You know we haven't gotten along with them for millennium. They are our enemy just as we were enemies to the flyians. Back when we ate flyians, they ate us." He didn't shake. He kept himself strong and confident. "They gave us the keronian delicacy eventually after we ourselves lost the flyians. The Poyon government thought a species shouldn't be at the bottom of the circle of life and came in and provided structure." Agugu frowned. "We of course saw it as a loss of pride needing to be saved by the poyonian government. But hey, at least we aren't being eaten as cattle."

He paused again. "A true predator and prey cycle was decreed to only work if it goes in a circle. With the flyians gone to not prey on the Viper's lifespan and decrease it or eat dead vipers, there was no circle and it was just the Vipers eating us and us eating nothing in return. The circle was ended."

"But as soon as the flyians came back into Keron's life I bet the Viper's took up their old ways and ate Mr. Emperor!" Tamama realized.

Agugu looked a little taken aback by the phrase 'Mr. Emperor', but nodded. "It's even worse then that, I'm afraid. Apparently some flyians got loose, I'm not sure how, we thought our security was top notch, but they went to the Vipers. Instead of eating them they created a deal because the Viper's were afraid. They'd bond their bodies to them and live inside them for power in return for them destroying us. So now we have both the flyians and Vipers attacking us."

"Ohhh too bad. So sad. What does this have to do with us?" Kululu was picking at his teeth. He now had his feet on the table.

Dororo looked at the ground and tried not to look guilty that the flyians that he had released had immediately gone to the keronians enemies to form their revenge. In the end he had made the wrong choice. The emperor was dead because of him. _I can't let them see that I'm the one guilty for all this._

Agugu just ignored Kululu's comments. He was a bit more easy going than stuck up adults who got easily riled up over anything the least bit jerky. "If I've learned anything from my time in the Keronian military it's that even the worst wars can be used to someone's advantage." Suddenly his face got a little more strategic, scheming. "The truth is very simple. If I become the hero that defeats the Vipers after they've killed the Emperor I'll skyrocket over all the rest of the keronians competing to become the next emperor. It doesn't matter how much blood they have over me if I'm the hero who took out the emperor's killer."

Everybody stared at him except for the soldiers under Agugu's command. Apparently they already knew this and nodded as if fully okay with this plan.

 _Still...What does that have to do with us? With me?_ Keroro wondered. _Does he want us helping him with the war behind the scenes?_ It didn't make much sense to him. They were failures. How could they help with anything?

"We gave you the flyians. We've done what you asked." Dororo pointed out, trying not to let his voice shiver. "So what does this have to do with us? Our job should be over."

Agugu smiled, ready to answer that. "The flyians….Were unfortunate. The stocks of flyians were low, some escaped and got away decreasing moral in Keronians, and a lot of the keronians who ate flyians died a terrible, terrible death." Agugu shook his head. "Only a select few gained some power. I myself never ate a whole flyian- perhaps that's why I was spared in the plague. I did, admittedly eat one wing. Didn't grant me super strength or anything like that, just some simple knowledge." He shook his head, but smiled nonetheless.

Whatever this knowledge was, it meant something to him. "Seeing what happened with the flyians, and eating a bit myself made me realize something that the rest of the military besides probably my faction doesn't understand. The flyians aren't the only thing that can make our planet strong." Agugu's voice was stern, and filled with patriotism for his planet. "Although the rest of the military doesn't believe that or understand it. I do. Keronian moral has decreased exponentially because all we believe in is the power of the flyians. But there's more than just the flyians."

Keroro looked confused for a moment. "T-there is?" That was exactly the opposite of what the colonel had told them, that the flyians were the only way for Keron to improve and become a better society. Was Agugu just being hopeful about the planet's achievements?

"We have our own power. We have something that makes us stronger than the Vipers, and the flyians." Agugu grinned. "We've just been missing it for a long time. It's the power that Keron has that originally caught us the flyians in the first place. It was what made us their natural predator and stronger than them."

Keroro closed his eyes trying to think. He could never remember a time when Keron was stronger than the flyians. _Unless...He's talking about that mythical creature that Haru once told me about._ Haru had told him that the flyians had explained the story to him. About how Keron had some legendary creature that had kept the flyians power in check and had taken them down. But one day the creature had died and thus with that the flyians had fled.

Agugu must have been talking about that power. Whatever that was. But Keroro always assumed it was a story or something that was used only for flyians. It couldn't make Agugu into a hero to win a war.

"I'm talking about Keron's true power. The power that we rightfully had that made us the strongest in the universe before it disappeared to us." Agugu boasted. It was unclear if there was ever a time where they truly had been the strongest in the universe.

Kululu's spirals widened a bit. "You're talking about the true power of the Keron star." He realized. He gave a snarky grin. He understood what was going on now. Why they had contacted the Keroro platoon. _Keroro's still in possession of the Keron Star. Of course they'd come for it eventually._ Things made sense again. "The power Keroro exhibited before."

"W-what?" Keroro asked, touching the star on his belly. _They came down for this?_ Part of it made sense. Another part of him had a sense of relief. He was afraid to lose the Keron star, sure, it made him a lot more respectable, but at the same time he did not want to experience that power again that he had had with the flyians. It was too much power for a normal keronian to hold.

Kululu got up out of his chair and walked over to Keroro. "I won't be pulled into a stupid war just because of this thing." He snatched the Keron star right off of Keroro's body before Keroro could offer it himself.

"H-hey!" Keroro replied, feeling cold and naked. It was kinda embarrassing.

Kululu handed the star to Agugu. "There. Now can you return us all home? You have no more need of us I assume. Ku, ku, ku."

Agugu smoothed out the Keron star. He held it out offering it back to Keroro. "This isn't the power that I was talking about that I'm going to use to defeat the Vipers."

Kululu frowned. "It...It isn't?" He had been wrong? That didn't make any sense.

Agugu sighed for a moment and sat down, something about the oncoming conversation looked like it was wearing on him. "When I was little I never believed the myths...They were just childish stories. Legends. That's it. When I went into the military the stories got stronger as I raised in the ranks. Seeds of reality were in them, but I still didn't take them as anything more than gossip. It wasn't until I was told completely that I fully learned. And even then I took it as lies. But once I saw it for myself...Saw it in reality….That was when I realized the legends were true."

Agugu looked very serious. "Now is finally the time for Keron's labor to come to fruit. Finally, in my time of life, in my generation...We can finally use Keron's greatest weapon."

"Keron's greatest weapon?" Keroro looked around. Was it Kiruru? Was Kiruru somewhere around here?

Keroro's father stopped leaning on a wall. He walked over to Keroro and put his hand gently on his shoulder. There was complete silence in the air.

None of the Keronian soldiers spoke or the military. None of the Keroro platoon spoke either. It was as if some of their confusion was finally staring to suspect what Keroro's father was saying.

They all looked at Keroro, remembering exactly what they had seen in the flyian incident. Deep down they knew this meeting had something to do with that. That Keroro's miraculous power was no coincidence.

Keroro was the only one still confused, with no inkling of what was going on.

"Our greatest weapon is you Keroro." The Demon Sergeant said in a low voice.

Agugu approached him Keroro and handed him the Keron Star back.

Keroro slapped his father's hand away from him. "What? Are you pulling my leg? That's silly!" He laughed. "I'm no weapon. I'm nothing powerful." His eyes were wide and there was a tiny bit of panic in his voice.

He looked at his father directly. "I can't be. If you remember correctly, dad, I was chosen to be part of a fake invasion. I was bait." Keroro still felt bitterly about the whole incident, but he felt like his father needed to face the truth about it and who he was. "I am an incompetent leader and an idiot. I am the leader of a failed platoon. I am a failure." Keroro proclaimed. "I appreciate that you want me to be something more, but you've got to face the facts Dad. I'm nothing special."

"B-but...Keroro, the power..." Giroro's voice was hushed, wondering if perhaps Keroro's father was onto something. Giroro had known the Demon Sergeant most of his life. He trusted him decently.

"The power is from the Keron star." Keroro explained. "I might be able to use it to its full potential but it's not me. The power is from this thing." Keroro held it out again, staring directly into his father's eyes. "I am no powerful legend. I'm just an idiot."

A door opened to the left of them that had the rest of the ship, and the colonel walked out. Apparently he had been watching from some cameras to make sure everything was going well. It became quite clear that this really was a debriefing, and an important one.

The colonel walked over to Keroro seeing that perhaps he wasn't taking the news very well.

 _What's he going to do? Tell me they made a mistake? Knock me out?_ Keroro wondered, sweating a bit.

Instead of either of those things, the colonel bowed to Keroro, getting onto one knee to show him his full respect.

Keroro gasped. He had rarely seen the colonel bow to anyone. The colonel had pride that wasn't easily swayed.

"H-he's bowing...The colonel's bowing." Giroro was in shock.

"That's….Not very normal." Kululu realized.

"He's on his knee..." Dororo was covering his mouth.

"Man, this really is serious!" Tamama gasped.

The colonel looked up at Keroro with full respect. "We apologize for fooling you, Keroro. For lying to you. But your entire platoon wasn't a failure. Just...Most of them." He glanced behind Keroro at the rest of the platoon, as if to gesture.

"W-what?" Keroro took a step back. That was too good to be true. _There...Were more secrets involved into why we were sent here? Why we were chosen?_

"Didn't you ever find it suspicious how non-specific your document was about why you were chosen? It was literally just one word, the word idiot. The rest of your platoon got pages and pages of reasons. After all we took the issue seriously of choosing who would go to Pekopon." The colonel explained, "But you...You only had one word in your document. You didn't have a list of reasons as to why you were a failure. It was broad. Non-specific. Almost like we hadn't made a list of failed traits for you."

Keroro furrowed his brow and looked confused. "Well yeah, but it was also very very true. Being an idiot I think is a lot worse than whatever reasons you sent the rest of my platoon to Pekopon." Keroro replied. "I didn't think you needed any more reasons besides me being an idiot. I mean I do really bumbling idiot things every day."

The entire platoon nodded.

"He's not joking." Giroro explained.

The colonel ignored him. To him this discussion was mostly between Keroro and him. "Keroro, you weren't a failure." He explained. "We had to quickly give you a fake document to make it look like you were so you didn't get suspicious but we didn't send you here to get rid of you, or because you were a failure."

Keroro couldn't help but smile a bit at that news, in amazement. _I'm not a failure?_ Anyone would be happy to hear that. _But if I'm not a failure...Which I'm still not sure about since I know me...Why was I sent here?_ He wondered.

"Keroro, you were put in this platoon secretly to train." The colonel quickly revealed. "Unbeknownst to your entire platoon, there were actually two reasons you were sent to Pekopon. One of which was to lure out the flyians which you now know about," He paused, "And the other was to train your power without your knowledge that it was being trained."

Keroro just looked confused.

"It was why we put a little bit of priority to those in your childhood. But don't worry, only a small amount of priority." The colonel reassured.

"Yeah, I know. After all Pururu didn't end up here." Keroro replied. In the end Giroro and Dororo really had screwed themselves.

"We put some priority on those who thought you were really cool too and might keep you safe. That and we had to have at least one competent member in the platoon." The colonel glanced over at Kululu with distaste. It was very likely Kululu had probably been the first one chosen. They really really wanted rid of him.

Keroro still looked confused. None of this was making any sense to him. His head was spinning so he sat down.

The colonel got off his knee to stand up. "This was the reason you were given so much leeway when you asked for things from headquarters, or threw a tantrum at us. It's because we truly did not want you to be unhappy with the situation. We did not know what would happen and we had to keep you as oblivious as possible." The colonel explained. "We also gave you the Keron Star because it made you stronger and was truly meant for you and-"

"Wait, hold up! There was a whole competition for that thing." Giroro yelled. "Are you telling me that was rigged to let Keroro win?"

The colonel nodded. "Mostly." He glared at Giroro making Giroro calm down. He still had to talk to Keroro.

Giroro grumbled and sunk into his chair.

"That was also why we had enemies sent down from Keron to fight you. We wanted to train you." The colonel explained. "You were never a failure."

Despite the fact that so much was going on behind the scenes that was creeping Keroro out a little bit, Keroro couldn't hide how overjoyed he was that in reality he hadn't been a failure. His face shined in a smile brightly as he felt a little bit of pride in himself.

He glanced over at his father. _If he was telling the truth...Does that mean he's proud of me?_ He would love if his father was proud of him.

He didn't fully understand what made him a weapon, but he felt a little happy at the news that he was something. He couldn't help but be happy.

 _Were...Were they training that power inside of me? The one that came out when Fuyuki was hurt?_ Keroro wondered. His hands were shaking a little bit. That power scared him. He wasn't sure how he had it, but it must have been that power.

If their training had given Fuyuki his life perhaps he could forgive it.

"I'm confused." It was Giroro who expressed confusion first and spoke up. "If Keroro is such an important weapon," He glanced at Keroro as if not saying he was. He didn't truly believe all this crap after all, "Why was it that this was the first time you were training him? In my childhood Keroro might have acted a whole lot differently but I know for a fact he never had any of this training. We were best friends after all. I would know about what was going on with him." Giroro said gruffly. He crossed his arms. "And for that matter, what makes Keroro such a great weapon?"

The Demon Sergeant looked at Giroro sadly. It was the sort of compassion that Keroro couldn't remember seeing his father look at him with. There was a bit of love in it with a mixture of sympathy. Like he looked at Giroro like he was his own son and felt sorry for him.

 _Why doesn't he look at me like that? I'm his own son!_ Keroro thought.

The Demon Sergeant sighed. "It's time to tell you the truth." He didn't look happy about that statement. "Keroro?" He looked at his son and scooted his chair closer to the table so he could be closer to Keroro, Giroro and even Dororo. "Have you ever wondered why everybody talks about this _Keroro of back then?_ How they were so impressed with you in the past and aren't impressed now? Have you ever wondered why the Keroro of back then was so different than the current you?" The questions seemed rather cryptic in a way.

Keroro looked at his father. "I'm super good at lying about my achievements and looking cool for mundane things?"

The Demon Sergeant ignored Keroro's pitiful guess. "Have...Have you ever wondered about how whenever you get attacked by something you get cloned and have to fight yourself?" He asked. "For that matter have you ever wondered why Keron even has your clone data when we never clone anyone else or have any of the other higher ups data?"

Keroro just blinked. _You've never had a clone, dad?_ That was kinda weird to him.

Kululu dropped a mug he was drinking from. It was probably one of the other soldier's coffees he had stolen. "Oh my god." He was finally beginning to piece it together. "Ku, ku, ku...You can't possibly mean-"  
"The Keroro of back then was just a lot of people's interpretations of me. Rumors start that way you know. From exaggerations." Keroro explained. "I'm just extremely lucky. It looks like I do something cool but really I was just using the toilet or something. There never really was a Keroro of back then." He sighed, "People just misinterpret who I am. Kinda sad." He laughed.

The Demon Sergeant frowned, he looked like part of him was breaking from Keroro's refusal to think about his questions. "I've….I've raised several ' **Keroro** **s** ' throughout my life." He finally admitted.

Keroro's face contorted in confusion. _That's...That's my name._ He realized. _What...What does that mean?_ He felt himself stop breathing. Everything around him stopped for a moment and he only saw the Demon Sergeant in front of him.

"The...The one that Giroro and Zeroro played with...That was just one of several. In fact I'm pretty sure they played with several different ones." He glanced at Giroro and Dororo.

Now Giroro and Dororo were pale too. They glanced at Keroro confused, as if waiting for an explanation.

"W-what...What the hell do you m-mean?" Giroro's voice was shaking. "S-several...We met several Keroros? T-that's not possible. Keroros don't pop up like daisies."

"But...What about Keroro?" Dororo pointed. His finger shaking a bit.

"Many green colored keronians are chosen to make family units throughout the generations and raise and foster Keroros. Me and my wife were just one of many families this generation, chosen for the ruse." The Demon Sergeant explained. "Eventually only one line of Keroros were chosen so that there weren't multiple incidents of one person being everywhere in the military. I was chosen to be the father of Keroro, and the gamma line proceeded into the military." The Demon Sergeant sounded a tiny bit proud.

Keroro was shaking. He just shook his head. "But...But you're my dad. Mom is my mom. I...I remember playing with Giroro and Dororo...What do you mean gamma line? I DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Keroro stood up, crying a bit.

"There have always been Keroros. There is never an end to them." The Demon Sergeant looked at his feet instead of the crying Keroro in front of him.

"W-what...What the heck does that mean?" Giroro asked. "So...So...There were like multiple families with some green keronian named Keroro, right? And there were other Keroro kids having other friend groups?"

"Keroro...Keroro asked me to be his friend." Dororo's voice was hallow and strained. "He might have made some mistakes but...He helped me in the beginning. And he's right over there." Dororo pointed again.

The Demon Sergeant sighed.

"Your Keroro. Multiple of your Keroros didn't live very long." The colonel piped in to explain.

Giroro's eyes widened. Dororo moved towards a trash can to vomit.

Keroro just shook his head. _What are they saying? I...I can't hear them._

"They all die pretty early on." The colonel explained. "For some reason in the cloning process cells don't regenerate at the rate we want. They always pull apart causing a very small lifespan. They just keep dying on us. Over and over again."

The Demon Sergeant looked down. His face didn't express any grief. All the grief had already been broken out of him.

 _S-small lifespan? W-who?_ Keroro wondered. He was feeling dizzy as he just stood there and listened.

"Some Keroros are far crueler than others, some more manipulative. I think you've experienced this directly, Zeroro." The colonel glanced over. Dororo frowned, "They all seem to exhibit different personality traits. But none of them have displayed any of the power and personality that we had wanted."

The colonel walked over to Keroro as if to present him. "This Keroro specifically was made entirely for the mission to Pekopon. It was decided that what we were going to do and we made him. This fit perfectly because he was the single most unique Keroro, being the only one who was this foolish. That was very different." The colonel nodded. "He was put on a ship, and given all of Gamma Keroro's memories, just as the other clones had been. They would have gotten too suspicious if they all had amnesia or something. We needed to give them a fake life as if to appear like they were living normally." The colonel explained.

Keroro was shaking.

"I was just chosen for a mission, as was all of you." The Demon Sergeant sighed. "My wife wasn't even my wife to begin with. Just another soldier chosen to play pretend. But Giroro, Zeroro...You deserve to know the truth. All of the Keroros you've met, all of the ones I've raised, they've all been clones." He sighed. "Not a single Keroro has lived through their own memories."

"B-but...B-but...That's not possible...I- I was there...There in school with Keroro...Just a second ago..." Giroro shook his head.

Tamama looked at Keroro. "B-but...Mr. Sergeant saved me..." Was that another clone? Or this one? Was that why Keroro had been so heroic and wasn't now? His eyes were wide with shock. He didn't know what to feel at all.

"How...How many of them have you raised?" Dororo asked.

"Over 10,000. Each Keroro barely makes it a year." The Demon Sergeant replied. "It's...It's sad. At first my wife and I tried to give them a normal life. Normal childhood. But...Eventually you just stop caring. It just becomes part of the mission and pretense. 'Check up on Keroro, make sure he's not showing signs of dying, if he is quickly dispatch and replace.' That sort of thing." The sadness in the Demon Sergeant's voice was clearly only there for Giroro and Dororo who he saw as real keronians. Who's lives mattered. He had lost all capacity to care about Keroro.

Keroro dropped to his knees. He didn't know why he did because he didn't believe anything anyone was saying. It was all just so out there. _I'm being pranked. It's like some bad anime plot._ He kept telling himself. His dad had set up a huge prank. He remembered growing up. He was there!

"Th-that..That isn't true..." Keroro's hands were shaking as he looked down at them. He could almost imagine them disappearing before him, just dissolving like deleted data. "I...I'm your s-son. We lived next to Giroro. I remember playing with everyone...I'm your son, right, Dad?" Keroro was sobbing.

"I'm sorry." The Demon Sergeant replied. "It's a hard job. My wife...She really wanted you to be her son...But it's so hard. Really in the end it's all about conning you. I've...I've seen so many of them die."

Keroro stood up, trying to desperately wipe away the tears. He glared directly at the colonel. "Why am I so special then? If it's as you say and I was made specifically for Pekopon I've lasted much longer than the rest!" He was angry trying to desperately find a reason he wasn't a clone. "Why were you training me and not them? Who am I?"

The colonel just stared at him. "No Keroro has been as incredibly incompetent and idiotic as you. And I guess that has something to do with your lifespan. You've shown no signs of your cells being pulled apart. You might be the first actually successful working clone."

Tamama looked like he had some sympathy for Keroro. Like he also didn't want to believe this. "This can't be true! After all Dark Keroro is a clone and he's still alive. He's not dying!"

"He has Kiruru DNA in him. He's not a perfect clone. He's some sort of mixed thing." The colonel replied. "It's stabilized his cells so he's not experiencing the same problems."

Tamama sat down not sure what to say to that.

"Who am I…?" Keroro just asked. Was he really some great weapon? He couldn't be. Why was he being cloned? _Some legendary creature that captured the flyians generates ago...Was...Was Haru talking about the original?_

Was there an original? Or was it just some successful fake weapon? Keroro didn't know. He felt nauseous. Dizzy. He didn't believe or want to believe any of this. He felt like he was disappearing again. His mind was drifting.

"You are the pride of Keron." The colonel replied and bowed again. "I think you deserve to know why we've tried to make you, perfect you for so long."

Keroro was shaking. Did he want to know?

"Have you ever wondered, Keroro, how every keronian seems to look like you? As if they're based on your shape, your figure, your design?" The colonel asked, "Have you ever noticed how even the planet looks like you? How you're named after the planet?"

"Keroro's a popular name. Like Terra on Pekopon. I mean there have been plenty of famous Keroros throughout history-" Keroro frowned. He didn't ever remember learning about those famous Keroros in school. He had always...Just known about historical events involving famous Keroros.

"All other clones probably." Kululu theorized.

Keroro frowned. _So it's not a popular name? It's all just clones?_

"Our true power...The true power that the keronians had was that long ago, back in the time when we had the flyians, we had a god that walked among the mortals." The colonel explained. "That god had made our planet, made the keronian species...Everything. He was so powerful. But he was said to be humble too. He loved us and lived among us trying to understand us and teach us values, trying to make his beloved species more powerful and knowledgeable." The colonel explained. "That god was Keroro. The original Keroro. That god is you, Keroro."

Keroro shook his head. His legs stopped working under him and he fell to the ground, almost fainting. "H-haru...Haru said that the legendary creature that took down the flyians in the first place was dead. I'm...I'm not dead...And for that matter I'm no god!" Keroro desperately yelled.

But could he be? As he looked at his hands he remembered the power that he had experienced with the flyians. It really had been god-like. It could have been like whatever caught them in the beginning.

The colonel tried not to snort that Keroro was taking Haru's word over his. "He was the most powerful thing ever." The colonel continued his story, "But you're right. He did in fact die. Eventually as Keroro walked among us he realized how strong we were becoming over the other races because of both the flyians and him. He didn't want to upset the natural order. And he realized truly how lonely being a god was."

"The story goes that Keroro found that he was always high above the mortals. They would always rely on his words over their own ideas because they had a god on their side. Not only that but he always stayed the same. He never changed, never aged, never grew in any way. He never connected with anyone because he was better than them. And that started making him feel distant and lonely like he didn't fully belong." Agugu explained, "How can you develop and grow to greater heights if you're a god? He never felt any goals and eventually just having fun was not enough for him. He grew bored I guess." He seemed lax and a little amused that someone could afford to grow bored of being the most powerful thing ever, "The story also says that he felt Keron was growing too big for its britches. He figured that meant he wasn't supposed to be in the universe helping them just become bigger than everything. The god realized that life wasn't supposed to be endless."

"So because he wanted his people to learn morality and, to learn lessons instead of obeying him and to grow and develop in ways he couldn't even imagine or do, he ended his own life." The colonel explained. "Only a god can truly kill a god. So he killed himself because he had too much love for his creations. We don't know if his plan was to go back to the heavens or something, we don't know about any of that stuff, but that's what happened."

"Then how did you start cloning him?" Kululu asked. Things were starting to become clearer as to why Keroro was always so important to them and forgiven for every mistake. Deep down they still worshiped him as their god- those who knew.

"Keron didn't want to let go of their god." The colonel explained. "The Keronian soldiers back then harvested his blood and genetic material from his body."

"You dissected a god? Not very respectful. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu teased. He was the only one who had enough of a mind to make fun of the story. Everyone else was in too much shock.

The colonel ignored him. "As the flyians supply dwindled, eventually our civilization reached the era of cloning, something we knew eventually we would reach and we were ready for. As soon as we invented cloning we started on our project to resurrect our god from the dead out of love for him."

"Sounds more like greed. Ku, ku, ku. Since you know, all of Keron wanted Keroro's power." Kululu said snidely.

The colonel glared.

"Truth be told we're not fully sure if that story is even true though!" The Demon Sergeant laughed. "We know Keroro's got power. But who knows if he was one of the first keronians and was a god that walked among mortals? All that matters is that he's now a concept to the planet. He inspires hope in the higher ups. We dream of the day that we can successfully make a god. And that day looks to be coming." He looked at Keroro. "Who knows if Keroro exists or ever existed? What matters is the concept of Keroro. The dream.

Keroro was crying and looking at this hands. His body. None of it looked real. He didn't know if it was foggy from the tears or if he was just seeing clearly. He had never existed. His memories were all fake. He wasn't real. He was just some super soldier. Artificial.

He was a sobbing hyperventilating mess. He couldn't really get words out, just hiccup like sobs. His father- The demon Sergeant wasn't even looking at him anymore. Nobody was. They didn't want to. They didn't want to face the fake Keroro. The clone.

 _I...I don't know what to do._ He didn't want to believe any of it. _It's a lie. Lie. Lie. Lie._ He repeated in his head. But he knew there was only one lie. That lie was his existence. He was the lie. He wasn't real.

Keroro was lying down on the ground now. Even sitting up and crying was too hard, and the heavy breathing was making him go in and out of blacking out.

Memories swarmed him. His first day of school, his first day of the military, the missing memories that weren't quite that clear to him like saving Tamama, foggy memories of raising Angol Mois that he wasn't exactly sure about either.

Then there were memories he hadn't ever had before. Other people surrounding him, other friends and other keronians. Some yellow, some black, some purple.

" _It's nice to have you in our life, Keroro. You're always so down to earth."_ Who were these people? Were they his other friend groups throughout the generations?

Had other Keroros had other friends as close as Fuyuki? Had they ever loved? Started families? Did his clones have children running around?

 _Actually I can't remember any children. That's a relief._ He was 95% sure that the military wouldn't let their god/clone breed, or that he couldn't breed if he just kept dying.

His mind was swirling memories all around him. But his heart felt wrenched around and like it was breaking when he knew for a fact that none of the memories were his.

He passed out over and over again. Every time he tried to get himself up he passed out again, just going in and out of a cycle of blacking out.

Who was Keroro? Was it him? Or was there no Keroro at all?

He couldn't take this information. "My memories are real! My memories are real!" He just repeated over and over again, yelling at the top of his lungs.

"None of them are real." The Demon Sergeant said walking in front of Keroro. "Those Keroros died. You just have pieces of them."

The memories did feel like pieces. All of them didn't really feel like him, they just felt different. They also felt hazy like he couldn't truly remember.

He had thought it had always been just a bad memory. But the facts were that they were never his.

Keroro sobbed harder. "I want to be real. Just...Lie...One last time. Let me be Keroro. Let me be real."

The colonel walked up to him. "You are real." He reassured. "You've proven yourself in a way those other Keroros never did. Because of what happened with those flyians you've proven that you actually do hold the power of the god Keroro." The colonel smiled. "We're all so proud of you. You're the one clone who will become a god. You've proven you are the true Keroro. Soon you will become him and the person you were before will be deleted just like the previous Keroros. His genetic material will take over."

Keroro held himself shaking. He didn't want to disappear.

"Aren't you excited? You're going to become a god! You'll be the most powerful and beloved thing in the universe." Agugu circled him confused as to why he was shaking.

"You're the new God, Keroro." The Demon Sergeant told him.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE THE NEW GOD!" Keroro yelled whimpering. "I want to be Keroro! This Keroro! Me!"

He flung himself on the floor again, as if to rub up against it and make sure it was still there, to cling to it. He started shrieking at the top of his lungs over and over again.

He tried desperately to cling onto his memories. Any memory. But they all started drifting off like Keroro was flying away from him. His childhood with Giroro, Dororo, Pururu, it was all becoming hazy. Giroro and Dororo, and Pururu were disappearing. Saving Tamama? It was gone. The Keron star competition, also drifting off.

Everything before Pekopon was disappearing. It was all becoming so blurry in his head truly showing him that Pekopon was the only thing really real. Everything else...It was gone.

"Please...Leave...Everything was fine until you came to Pekopon to tell me this!" Keroro screamed. "Leave me alone!" He ordered. "I can't deal with this!" He sobbed again. "I want to go back to being Keroro and real..."

The colonel looked at him, sighing and wishing he would stop crying and screaming. It was difficult. He side-stepped him a bit. "You're just a concept. You've got to do what you were meant to do now. Win. Fight. Keep ascending to godhood."

Keroro cried harder.

"I don't understand. You're doing what any good Keronian would murder their entire family for. You've proven yourself to Keron. I'm sure all your old platoon mates are jealous of you, and wish they were in your position." The colonel just frowned. "You've passed the test as the True Keroro. You're the one with the best luck and abilities."  
"You have a role now, Keroro." The Demon Sergeant smiled. "All you've ever been really is a tool. Most keronians embrace that. It's your time to shine."

Keroro just shook his head. Before the Demon Sergeant could keep talking to him he ran off through one of the doors, terrified. He didn't want to hear anything more in this debriefing room.

Agugu frowned and sighed. "We didn't even complete explain the mission."

"Yeah...What is it?" Kululu asked.

"Well as you know now, Keroro is extremely important to us and powerful. We want him to beat the Vipers for me. He has the power after all." Agugu explained. "With his support I will become Emperor."

"A-and...And that has to do with us, how?" Dororo asked. He looked at the door that Keroro had rushed out of worriedly. "Should we go after him?"

"We can give him some time alone." Agugu offered. "But it's because of how Keroro reacted. We didn't know if Keroro would willingly help us. So we're going to use his platoon to get to him." He looked around. "To put it simply: We're putting pressure on you four to help out so you'll stay and keep Keroro sane and make sure he does his job and help out."

"P-pressure?" Giroro was still shaken up about the news about Keroro. "You can't put pressure on me. I-I'm not leaving Pekopon for some...Admittedly cool Keronian war to save my people from an evil race."

Agugu raised a brow. Giroro looked like he was really the easiest to convince of this.

"Do you want to do this the old fashioned way with files?" The Demon Sergeant asked, holding up four files with the keronians names on them. "Or do you want us to just tell you what's in it for you?"

"Just tell us. That's so much easier." Kululu snapped. He didn't really care about Keron anymore. He was really curious about what they were going to do to him.

"Well, let me start with Giroro then." Agugu glanced over at Giroro. "Your father and brother would be super proud of you if you helped in a war. It's your chance to redeem yourself."

"I'm in." Giroro really was the easiest to convince.

 _That's all it took?_ Everybody just looked at him flabbergasted. They were all very disappointed in him for taking Keron back so quickly.

But that was someone who was raised as a soldier all his life and cared mostly about his family's pride in him.

"Zeroro." The Demon Sergeant glanced at Dororo, "I hate to say this but if something bad happens on Keron your mother's going to be caught up in it. Don't you feel obligated to help out? Don't you want her safe? This is the best way."

Dororo looked reluctant. But he also felt extremely guilty that most of this was his fault. Keroro's secrets could have stayed buried for longer if not for him. He gave a reluctant nod.

The soldiers smiled. Finally the colonel turned to Kululu. "Kululu."

"You ain't got nothing on me." Kululu twirled a pencil. "I'm never helping you jerks again."

"Your um…." The colonel didn't know exactly how to phrase this.

"I can say it if you want. I'm good with slang." The demon sergeant offered.

"I can say it!" The colonel was blushing, "You're r-romantically entangled with the Angol girl...right? I think?" He wasn't quite sure.

Kululu gave a slow nod. He didn't like where this was going.

"We know that you two are living together. As we've said we've been monitoring her a bit,"

"Creepy. Ku, ku, ku" Kululu interrupted. "I'm installing better security immediately."

The colonel ignored him,

"She's showed signs of..." The colonel just couldn't finish his sentence.

"Being knocked up." The Demon Sergeant finished. "Or early signs of it. We actually brought her in for medical testing is all." He explained.

Kululu's glasses cracked. "How did that happen?" He wondered.

"Well Kululu, if you 'get laid all the time' like you said you were, there's an increased risk of it." Giroro teased.

"I...I guess we weren't being the most incredibly careful of people..." Kululu felt like he had been very stupid.

"Anyway we're prepared to offer Keron's medical facilities to help out with whatever you two decide to do." The colonel shrugged. "We've never seen a Keronian/Angol cross-breed and the consequences of not having our help...Could be dangerous."

Kululu paled quite a bit. Although the pressure on the others had been rather composed his was quite clearly a masked threat. He no longer felt like laughing and just gave a tiny nod.

"And Tamama-" The colonel glanced over.

Tamama looked nervous. What would they bribe him with?  
"We won't destroy you where you stand. You really mean nothing to us." This one wasn't even a masked threat.

Tamama just frowned and nodded. He understood the position he and the platoon were in. They were basically hostages to be used against Keroro.

* * *

Keroro huddled in a corner, hugging his knees. Maybe if he buried his face into the darkness of his own body he didn't have to see anything or think about it. "I am Keroro. I'm no God." He kept repeating to himself.

He didn't want to believe what he had been told. He just kept insisting to himself that he was himself.

As he continued to repeat the words "I am Keroro" His ex-platoon mates approached.

When he glanced up he knew immediately that they were looking at him differently. Their attitudes had changed. Giroro was looking with horror, shock and betrayal at him. Kululu looked at him like he was no more than a thing, Dororo was looking like he pitied him and Tamama..?

Tamama no longer had wide eyed idolization. He no longer looked bubbly and cute. He looked like he had been betrayed and hurt directly by Keroro. And more than anything he looked disinterested in what was just one clone of many.

 _Maybe it's just stress from Keron coming here...Yeah! Maybe that's it._ But he knew their attitudes had changed because of shock. It wasn't anything like stress.

Giroro was the first to speak as he looked down at Keroro. "You're not my friend."  
"N-no! That's not true!" Keroro said hurriedly. "What about all our good memories on Pekopon?"

"You're not the friend that I spent my childhood with. You're...You're not my Keroro." Giroro said sternly as if he was trying to say it to remind himself of it. "He's...He's dead. He never really existed." He covered his face, sighing. "I should have known. Sometimes you would act so differently than before. When we got to Pekopon you acted so idiotic. Every time you said something remotely inspiring I would jump on it thinking you were back to part of yourself. But I was just being stupid. You...You're not him. You never will be."

Keroro just shook his head. He was crying again. The tears actually had never stopped. "I am him!" He proclaimed.

"It's okay." Dororo said sympathetically. "I'm...I'm really sorry for how I treated you, Keroro. You weren't the one with me in my childhood. You never traumatized me. But I was always so mean to you." He looked like he was trying to start fresh.

But it just made Keroro feel like a stranger. A foreign person. He just stared blankly at Dororo.

Kululu put his hands behind his back and stretched. "Ku, ku, ku. I always suspected some big mystery was going on with you. You were something, I knew that. I just didn't know it was anything this extreme. I don't make conspiracy theories about people being secretly gods after all." He glanced at Keroro, "But geez, who knew we were being led by an actual child. You're like barely six or something aren't you? Something around that. Who knows?"

Keroro just blinked. Kululu was just focusing on the science. Not about his feelings.

"You're...You're not going to say that I'm not the real Keroro? Whichever Keroro you had strong attachments for?" Keroro asked.

"Eh. Didn't really have those feelings." Kululu shrugged. "I guess I feel better knowing why you got away with so much." He paused. "Still...If Mois ever knew the truth I bet she wouldn't take too kindly to the fact that the person who she was so close to no longer exists. That she was just going after the wrong Keroro for a bit." He looked a bit interested in the aspect of how Mois would react to knowing about Keroro. Kululu clearly still had some small issues about her previous crush on him and wanted to assure it was fully completely gone. "If she knew the truth I don't think she'd want anything to do with you. Ku!"

Keroro just frowned. That was not what he wanted to hear. He whimpered a bit more. He turned his head to Tamama who was just staring at him in shock.

"So….You weren't the Mr. Sergeant who saved me?" Tamama asked in a hushed whisper. "You...You weren't the cool Mr. Sergeant on TV? You...Were just the Mr. Sergeant on Pekopon?"

Keroro didn't know how to answer that. _I know...That me saving Tamama was important to Tamama. But even before I had no memories of it. Did the clone Keroro somehow lock those memories away?_ He shook his head though. "I'm still me though." He pointed to himself. "And...A-and...I'm still your friend."

He hoped that was enough. Usually out of everyone Tamama was always the one to support him. Even if he told him the truth and when he was messing up, Tamama supported him in the end. They were friends.

He hadn't formed a friendship with Tamama before Pekopon. It had been on Pekopon that they had formed that important friendship, so he felt...He felt deep down that Tamama would be the least effected by anything like that he was a clone.

After all, this Keroro saving Tamama couldn't be that important to Tamama, right?  
Tamama didn't say anything for a moment, but he finally shouted something in a sort of cracking voice "I loved you!" He sounded like he was close to crying, like he felt betrayed.

 _Uh-oh. I was wrong about this. Wasn't I?_ Keroro realized. He really had no memories of what had happened between him and Tamama when he had saved Tamama. For all he knew now his other clone could have totally gotten it on with Tamama and now Tamama was super mad at him for replacing his boyfriend or something.

 _That wouldn't make any sense though. If we got it on he would have acted differently or mentioned it to me or you know tried to kiss me—_ Keroro frowned. Tamama had done those things multiple times.

He was beginning to realize just how dense he had been at the exactly wrong moment. He started sweating knowing just how bad this situation was about to turn.

"But...Did I really love you?" Tamama asked. "I loved you because you saved me! But that wasn't you. It was some other Keroro! But did he even exist? Do you? No! You're just a concept that never existed!" Tamama shouted. "I...I spent my time chasing after love with a concept. You never felt anything. You were never going to feel anything because either you'd die and be replaced by a new Keroro or just disappear into Keron's tool of a god!" Tamama was shouting and crying now. He just felt heart-broken.

 _He's...He's abandoning me._ Keroro realized. Tamama was yelling at him and crying because he felt betrayed. And he no longer felt any attachments to this Keroro.

Tamama had said he would listen to him, help him, stay by his side, but now he was abandoning him. "N-no...P-please...S-stay." Keroro begged. "I'm me. I'm still me. I'm Keroro."

"Do you even really know who Keroro is? Do you really know who you are?" Tamama asked.

"I can be the Keroro who you want me to be. I can be any Keroro any of you want me to be! Just please stay!" Keroro begged, "Please be my friends. Care about me!" He grabbed Tamama's arm, "Please Tamama...Please love me." He had to be himself. He had to be the old Keroro. Whatever version of that it was.

He didn't know who the old Keroro was. He just wanted to have support and Tamama still in his life.

"I...I don't know if I love you anymore." Tamama admitted. "I don't know if I love ' _Keroro'_ anymore." He said the name with venom.

"B-but...I'm...I'm a god, I guess. Keroro's a god. Isn't that something good out of this whole mess?" Keroro asked.

"I never wanted to be with a god. I just wanted to be with Keroro. You know, the one who saved me." Tamama repeated his mantra, that he was thankful for being saved. "My hero and my idol. But….That was never you."

Keroro's hopeful look dropped to a frown. His face was cracking into despair. Tamama definitely was leaving him.

They felt the ship shaking as it launched upward, and without any second words his friends turned around and disappeared leaving him alone.

Keroro watched his friends go, his heart fully breaking. Losing his friends was even worse than losing his identity and his family.

* * *

 **This whole story came from the idea of "wouldn't it be fun if Keroro had been a clone this entire time?". He gets cloned so many times. And by the time of Dark Keroro and New Keroro I was wondering "why is it only keroro they're cloning? Why didn't they clone some other guy?" Also like...Either his parents have literally the most unoriginal naming sense or there's something going on there. He looks like the planet.**

 **It was also based on several instances where Keroro has almost god-like luck in the anime. Especially one episode where the keronians are selling bottles of their sweat and it's revealed Keroro's sweat causes weirdly incredible luck?**

 **It was weird. And that episode spawned this fanfic.**

 **I hope you're enjoying it. Please review.**


	14. Nature and Nurture

**Sorry for taking so long to update! But here's the next chapter. So this chapter has a slight focus on Dororo, because the next few chapters focuses on yet again each member of the Keroro platoon talking to Keroro. (Dororo, Giroro, Kululu and Tamama). There's other characters too like Tamama since this is a Kerotama story.  
**

 **I hope this is okay. School's starting soon so this might be hard to update during the first few weeks. Maybe I can do the next chapter before school starts but don't quote me on that.**

* * *

Keroro wasn't sure how long it took for them to make it to Keron. He mostly stayed in a small room, huddled with blankets during the trip.

He knew space travel wasn't nearly as fast as Fuyuki usually liked to make it out to be. He would have been gone from Pekopon at least for a week while they traveled, but Keroro just couldn't be bothered to count the hours that went by.

Hours, days, weeks, and suddenly years had become meaningless to him. How many years had he existed again? He wasn't exactly too sure.

All he knew was to his previous friends all those hours and days of friendship that they had once had, all those fun invasion plans, they were all now built on lies. He wasn't Keroro any longer. He was nothing.

He just curled up in his blankets. _I wonder if Fuyuki misses me. Is he thinking about me? Or is he just going on with his life?_ He knew Fuyuki had already moved on.

Fuyuki thought he was lying to him after all. And Keroro had been, even if he didn't previously know he was lying.

He hid his head under a rather fluffy blanket. The Demon Sergeant-Someone who no longer was pretending to be Keroro's father, came in every now and then to give Keroro meals. Sometimes the Colonel would tell Keroro how close to Keron they were. Keroro didn't remember.

All he had done was cry since the news had been given. He was still waiting for his friends to visit him and reassure him that everything was the same and that things were okay. But they hadn't. He hadn't seen Tamama once since he cast him aside.

Tiredly, Keroro looked down at a bright light in his hand. It was a phone that he had brought along with him. He hadn't gotten much sleep due to not wanting to think about what was happening to him but he sometimes liked looking at the bright light of the phone.

 _I remember when Fuyuki and I went out shopping for this pekoponian contraption. He and Lady Natsumi said that I should have a phone so they could contact me if I got lost in the city or something while they were at school._ It had taken him months to learn that he could browse the internet on his phone. After that he had happily found lots of manga to distract him from his life.

Right now, a distraction wasn't even helpful. He couldn't even find it himself to load a manga page. That was the old Keroro. An anime nerd. The apparent non-existent Keroro who just lived his entire life based on a lie.

Keroro looked down at his phone. Nobody was with him anymore. Nobody was by his side. Nobody cared about him because it was a different Keroro they each held their affections for.

 _But there's one person who only knew me. There's one person who wouldn't care._ Keroro realized. He quickly started texting Fuyuki- his previous best friend.

Sure they might have had their problems in the past, but when Fuyuki learned Keroro was dealing with something really extreme he'd be there for him, right? Even if Fuyuki could only send a message of support it would help Keroro.

So Keroro wrote, going out on a limb and hoping for Fuyuki's affection.

 _ **"Hey Fuyuki!**_

 _ **It's me! Keroro. You might have heard from your Mom or even Lady Natsumi that our platoon has gone missing. Turns out that we've been re-enlisted to help out the military and do our duty for Keron."**_ Keroro wrote. _Yeah, that sounds cheerful enough. It will make me sound normal and draw Fuyuki's attention._

He didn't want Fuyuki to realize just how scared he was. How he felt like he was losing himself, how if Fuyuki rejected him too he might crumble.

He knew Fuyuki probably wouldn't reject him. It was Fuyuki after all. But he hadn't thought Tamama would leave him and reject him and he had been wrong about that.

Keroro sniffled as he tried to continue his message to Fuyuki. _"_ ** _Anyway, Fuyuki….Do you remember Dark Keroro? You...You wanted to be his friend, right? I didn't really think much about him at the time besides the fact that he was like an anime twin brother to me, but I've been thinking more about him. He had his own personality, friends and dreams, right? His own life. And then he left to invade his own planet….But you still liked him, and wanted to be his friend. Was it because he was like me and you felt bad for him or because he was his own person?_**

 ** _Basically...What I'm asking Fuyuki_ _is...If...If I wasn't Keroro...Would you still be my friend? Would I have my own life like Dark Keroro? Or would I just be a copy of some guy named Keroro?"_** Keroro gulped.

He hoped Fuyuki would advise him. He hoped Fuyuki would answer his question.

" _ **I miss you...Please answer soon."**_ He quickly deleted the last part. Fuyuki didn't need to know how desperate he was.

He sent the message.

And then he waited, holding his phone. As he heard the clock tick and the hours drawl on he waited for a reply to come.

But no reply ever did. Fuyuki never answered. Had Fuyuki been too busy to see the message? Or was he still mad at Keroro for keeping secrets from him?

Keroro would never know. All he knew was that his friend wasn't answering.

Keroro thought his tears had dried up from Tamama's abandonment, but once he realized that despite his desperation no reply was coming he started crying again. That feeling of loneliness was bubbling up again.

He bawled loudly for several hours. He was sure that some others heard him because he heard a loud clunking on his wall from whoever room was next to him. Judging by the amount of pounding and strength he guessed Giroro was the one who was trying to get him to shut up.

"Sergeant Keroro." The colonel eventually opened his door, slightly annoyed by the loud crying. "There have been complaints about your...Noise level. We can not have our brave God go into battle against the Vipers with a tear soaked face." The colonel scolded.

Keroro gulped, a pit in his stomach. He had forgotten all about the Vipers and how he was supposed to do battle with them- and mostly him. He didn't know how he was supposed to defeat Vipers who were super strong because of the flyians all on his own.

He doubted the Colonel would listen to his complaints though. He wasn't an average keronian who was held to normal standards. He was a tool. He was their God. This was his job.

He just gave a meek nod as the colonel closed the door.

 _So this is how Dororo feels. People ignoring you in your worst moments._ Keroro finally tried to laugh things off to himself. "H-ha. M-maybe this is some sort of karma?" He did remember leaving Dororo in the corner to cry quite a few times.

Some of his platoon mates and him would sometimes notice Dororo only to politely ask him to decrease his volume of tears, which would just make him sob harder. Keroro had been confused how that had happened at the time, but now he could understand.

 _I should have been a better friend to Dororo…._ Keroro shook his head. No, he couldn't be thinking that. For one thing he and Dororo had never been friends. Not in his life at least. Dororo was just his platoon member who he forgot about.

The only real friend Keroro had had that hadn't interacted with a previous Keroro was Fuyuki. And Fuyuki wasn't answering him.

 _There would have been a time in my life that he would have happily told me that he would befriend any Keroro regardless of their past or characteristics._ Keroro realized. Fuyuki was just that kind of happy go lucky guy who just loved making friends.

Fuyuki would have told Keroro that he was Keroro despite his past. That none of that clone stuff mattered. But Fuyuki was growing up. He still cared about friendship but he wanted friendship to be a two-way street and he was beginning to feel like that wasn't how things were with Keroro.

Fuyuki had started suspecting that there was something different about Keroro long before Keroro had known himself. Instead of assuming that Keroro himself was ignorant Fuyuki felt hurt that his friend wasn't sharing with him the burdens that he was caring. He felt that Keroro didn't trust him and that Keroro had kept whatever Keroro was from Fuyuki.

 _I was in the dark too, Fuyuki._ Keroro thought to himself. He had been kept from the truth too. By his father, his mother, and who knows how many others in his life.

He didn't know if he wanted to know the truth though. If he had been told when he was coming to Pekopon that he was a clone would he have just died quickly like all the other clones? What had kept him alive for so long? His ignorance?

So then the situation with Fuyuki was inevitable, despite Fuyuki's hurt feelings.

 _What I really want though..._ Keroro shivered. _Is for things to be normal again. I don't want to be a God. I didn't want to know this._ But he was a God. He wanted to deny that he was, but he could still remember the terrifying power he had gained after Fuyuki had died.

His hands were shaking remembering the power. Briefly a sub-conscious thought struck him. _If...If I had let Fuyuki die then...If I hadn't captured the flyians….Would none of this be happening? Would I have not ascended to Godhood if I just allowed Fuyuki to stay dead?_ Keroro gasped at his own thought process.

How could he think that? He threw his phone against the wall just because he felt the need to throw something. It broke but he didn't pay much attention to it. Instead he fell to the floor, gasping for breath.

"H-how...How could I even want that? T-that's disgusting...I'm...I'm no God. I'm a monster." He shivered and told himself.

The thought hadn't gone away. It felt too violent for him. He didn't like it. _But if nobody knew about my past, including me, I'd still have Tamama. Tamama would love me. Giroro and Dororo would be my friends. Mois would admire me. Kululu probably wouldn't look at me like I was a byproduct of science. I'd be just a natural keronian._

He vomited. How could he put his own selfish desires above Fuyuki's life? It wasn't Fuyuki's fault he was going through this.

He just cried again. And again. "I'm...I'm sorry. I'm sorry Fuyuki. For everything. For bringing you back in a way that hurt you. For lying to you. For thinking you might be better off dead. I'm sorry. I'm a bad friend for forever. I'm just a bad friend." Were God's even meant to have friends?

He sure felt he wasn't.

After all his platoon mates had left him instantly when they had learned the truth.

 _It's true that a part of me should say I don't need them. I have people on Pekopon who have never interacted with a clone of me after all. Lady Mom….She only knows this Keroro. Lady Natsumi...Our fights were only between us. Not some other Keroro...Momoka and Koyuki to a much lesser extent._ Keroro tried to list off names.

But it was also true for all of that that his old friends had been much more important to him than Natsumi or Aki ever could be. He had a friend group that made up his past. His most important memories were of Zeroro, Giroro and Pururu. But now….Now that was all gone. He had never lived through any of that.

His past was dead and his cherished friendship of the 'chibi Keroro platoon' was gone. He never existed in Giroro, Pururu and Zeroro's pasts. He hadn't saved Tamama and he certainly had never raised Angol Mois.

It was all gone. It didn't exist. And instead of embracing the new Keroro before them the people in his supposed past instead mourned their dead friends, the other Keroros.

They hated him. He knew that much from Tamama and the way he looked at him. Like Keroro had done a personal betrayal and used his heart. Like he had tugged it along.

 _Perhaps Tamama just realized what kind of person I really was._ That he was incompetent and an idiot and really did have no redeeming qualities. Now that the redeeming qualities that Tamama had seen before was gone Tamama was regretting wasted years of his life doting after Keroro.

Keroro couldn't blame him. But he still felt deep sadness and a pit of loneliness of what could have been. He really hadn't expected that out of everyone Tamama would be taking it the hardest.

 _I want my friends back. I want my life back. I want Fuyuki to be there for me. I want my past...I want Tamama._ There were so many things Keroro wanted. But he had none of them.

So he just cried.

* * *

Keroro eventually wandered out of his room to check on the status of how close to Keron they were. He weakly and meekly listened to the colonel describe the Viper and various attacks the Keroro platoon would do on them.

Agugu noticed Keroro's quiet behavior after one of the meetings. He approached him trying to be friendly. "Is there anything we can do to cheer you up? We don't know what triggers your power after all and...A lack of self could very well hurt it. You are our god. Please if there's anything we can do don't hesitate to ask." He requested.

Keroro looked down brushing off the politeness. This guy might have been around his platoon's age- maybe younger and closer to Kululu's age, but he didn't feel any real connection to Agugu. Agugu was the one who had brought him here after all.

"What does it matter to you? Why do you want me to be happy?" Keroro demanded, bitterness in his voice.

"We need you at your best condition. We need your strength. We need you to defeat the Vipers, remember?" Agugu reminded.

Keroro didn't shake in fear this time at the mention of just him going up against the Vipers. Instead he felt nothing.

"You need to become the God you were meant to be." Agugu said firmly, "And to do that you shouldn't be feeling earthly feelings. You are an ethereal being. Emotions are intangible, they don't need to be something that represents you." He advised.

Keroro didn't heed any of this advice. Instead he glared at Agugu filled with bitterness. "How...How does it benefit you me destroying the Vipers?" He asked again.

"As I told you before I wish to be the next Emperor, with your help I can win the war-" Agugu explained.

"Yes, but you're not doing any of that! It's me who's going out into the battlefield. I'm doing the heavy lifting. Won't the people worship me instead of you? You should have left me on Pekopon if you're real goal is to become Emperor. Because I can't help you in any way." Keroro pointed out.

Agugu smiled. Keroro's angry speech didn't seem to dissuade him in any way. It seemed to be something he had already thought about and prepared a response for. "We're not just fighting a war, Keroro." He spoke his name.

Keroro didn't know how he felt about his name uttered on anyone's lips anymore. He knew these keronians weren't talking to him. They were talking about their god.

"We're interrupting the cycle of predator and prey. We're making sure we don't get slaughtered by a species that have become even stronger with our own prey's help. We were always a circle, we ate the flyians, the flyians preyed on the Vipers and the Vipers preyed on us, but the Vipers and flyians have now teamed up. Only a God can disrupt that evil cycle." Agugu explained.

"But-Your own ambition's….This has nothing to do with being Emperor!" Keroro pointed out.

"It does. People relate to mortals. Not Gods. Even if you win the war, which we need you to do, it'll be me who's embraced as the hero for bringing you, the God. God's aren't expected to rule over kingdoms. They're better than that. And to be honest people are a little intimidated by them. They wouldn't understand what they're thinking in their heads. But mortals? Mortals make sense." Agugu explained.

Keroro didn't know what to say. Agugu was making a surprising amount of sense. _People don't know what's in my head? They can't relate to me?_ But all he did usually was play with gundam models and watch anime! That was pretty relatable, right?

He didn't say that though. Maybe Agugu was right. Maybe he had lost his chance to have people relate to him. Now that he was a god he was too powerful to have people understand him.

 _No...My platoon...My ex-platoon surely doesn't believe what Agugu says. I mean I don't want to become Emperor but maybe the knowledge that people can relate to me will make them not want our platoon to go into this war. After all the main goal and ambition to them is to actually to make Agugu emperor. Using me could get in the way of that._

He had to see his platoon. After all, knowing that they still understood him...It would help his mental state and make him feel normal and it might get them all out of a dangerous situation.

* * *

It was after one of the meetings explaining the locations of various Viper camps and forts that had quickly sprung up on Keron. Keroro finally worked up the courage to approach his former platoon mates.

He went to Tamama first, it was just instinctual. "Hey, Tamama do you want to-"

"No." Tamama said harshly and turned away. Tamama hadn't made direct eye contact with Keroro the entire time during the meeting. In fact he had sat as far away from him as possible.

Really everyone had. Keroro had sat at the end of the table to show his status. Still it felt like everyone except Kululu was piling to one edge.

Kululu was just not really paying attention to the drama and putting his feet on an expensive table as always. He ignored Keroro, but Keroro wasn't sure if that was just normal. He honestly couldn't tell.

Keroro tried to grab at Tamama's arm before Tamama booked it out of the room. "I'm...I'm really sorry for what happened between us. And I'm not talking to you just because I want you to pay attention to me and I want your affection! I want to assure you 100% I'm not after your love. After all you're not in love with me anymore and it would be mean of me to pressure anything-"

"Is this going anywhere?" Tamama asked taking a step back from Keroro so he couldn't try to grab him again. "I have to be somewhere. Anywhere but here."

Giroro tried not to look at the two of them, feeling some amount of second hand embarrassment for Keroro. He might have still been mad about the whole god thing but it just felt sad to watch the fact that Keroro had only learned that Tamama liked him right when his whole life had been revealed to be a lie.

Kululu let out a loud laugh, "Ku, ku, ku!"

"Yeah, it was going somewhere! I wanted to know if you maybe wanted to hang out or...Or try to be friends. I mean...I might not be some hero Keroro, but I'm fun Keroro! I'm relatable Keroro who's always down to play with a gundam model-"

At the mention of 'hero Keroro', Tamama had a distraught look on his face. It was like he had been punched at the memory that that Keroro was in fact dead and he'd never get to be with him. But as Keroro continued to speak Tamama channeled his sadness into anger.

"How did I like you for so many years?" Tamama sighed. "It should have been sooo obvious that you weren't the same person."

"..." Keroro was a bit caught off guard by that. He tried not to look or even feel hurt. It was extremely hard. _You liked me because we were friends. I'm...I'm your friend. There were other things you liked about me, right?_ He wanted to ask. But he couldn't find the words.

He wasn't exactly sure what anyone would like about this version of him. He was just an idiot after all. "I...I know you might have had false expectations of me previously, but I thought...We could maybe start up a new relationship with the real me. We could be friends-" Keroro suggested.

"I was in love with an idea of you. A different you. I didn't want to be friends." Tamama replied. "I'm not going to make the same mistakes that I have in the past." And he walked away.

Keroro reached out as he watched him go. But he knew he couldn't chase after him. He had been rejected and there was no way he was getting Tamama back.

 _But...Giroro and Kululu...They have to understand me...Right?_ Keroro had to remember that he couldn't just focus on Tamama. He had other platoon members.

"G-giroro, um...H-hey...Can you...Show me how to shoot or something?" Keroro asked desperately.

"We have no connection." Giroro got up. "We're not platoon mates. We're not childhood friends. My dad's friend isn't even your Dad. He's just had to take care of you. I'd help another soldier shoot but you're no soldier. You're inhuman." Giroro got up. He gave an icy cold glare to Keroro as he passed by.

Keroro knew right then that Giroro felt truly lied to. His connection with Giroro was over. "I'm...I'm Natsumi's friend-" He tried desperately to use the one thing on Giroro that always worked.

"And you lied to her too! She doesn't know that you're some sort of supernatural alien god. She already isn't the biggest fan of aliens! What do you think she'd think of some alien god? And add in the fact that she's clearly superior to you in every way and kicked your butt multiple times—really brings down Keron due to the fact that you supposedly created our race." Giroro just sighed. "I'm really disappointed to be a keronian right now thinking about that."

He walked away and Keroro didn't know what to say.

 _Kululu's still here. He'll relate to me. He'll understand I have emotions. He and I played DS together a few times. You can't just play mario kart with a god._ Keroro turned around desperately to Kululu. "Kululu-"

"Ku, ku, ku. There's the drama bell." Kululu replied.

"Drama bell?" Keroro asked confused.

"Means drama's over. No reason to stay around here." Kululu shrugged. "I was only really sitting here to see Tamama and Giroro lay into you."

"Kululu! I'm having a hard time!" Keroro whined. "Can you stop being a jerk for one moment to try to understand my feelings?"

Kululu just stared at him and then slowly shook his head. "Me? Stop being a jerk? Never. I feast on the drama and misery." He paused, "Anyway. You'll be fine and all. You are a God after all. Scientifically speaking you've started your ascent to godhood. Eventually your memories and your feelings of this life will disappear and you'll stop feeling like you do. You'll just feel whatever god's feel which I would guess is probably nothing or emotions that are superior to all our petty ones. Like arrogance and feeling like you're better than everyone-"

Keroro felt like those statements were contradictory.

"That and you'll probably disperse into universe particles and your existence and body will just be deleted from history. So yeah, nothing to worry about. You simply won't exist soon enough." Kululu soothed.

Keroro tried not to let his face contort in horror. Kululu's reassurance had not helped. In fact it had done quite the opposite. He breathed heavily as Kululu looked at him with a moment of disinterest and then quickly left seeing that Keroro was speechless.

Keroro dropped to his knees and tried to steady his breathing so he wasn't hyper-ventilating. It didn't work very well.

 _They really couldn't understand me. Maybe...Maybe I am inhuman. Maybe I am not something someone can relate to._ Keroro thought to himself.

He didn't realize that his entire platoon hadn't left yet. That he wasn't alone yet.

Quietly Dororo approached him. He hadn't really spoken to him since the incident. He hadn't been avoiding him like the others, in fact he had kept his eyes on Keroro a bit more than Giroro and Tamama had, but he still hadn't spoken to him.

Keroro didn't know it was because he hadn't approached Dororo first.

"When...When I hyperventilate Lady Koyuki would rub circles on my back and try to ground me and remind me that I was here and that she was here for me. She would try to sooth me and hold me." Dororo told him. "Is there anything you do for yourself when you're scared like this?"

Keroro looked up at him. Dororo was still there? And asking? "Pretend I'm not and push it down?" Keroro pretend laughed. "Play with a gundam model?"

"I figured that was your method." Dororo sat down on the ground next to him. "I...I don't know if hugs help you and honestly...I feel a bit weird offering it considering our past together…."

"And the fact that it's non-existent and that your friend is dead?" Keroro asked.

"Actually I was talking about how when I was a child the last time we hugged you stuck a paper on my back with tape that said 'My real name is Zemomo. Please repeatedly call me Zemomo because I get annoyed by people calling me anything else. I like to pretend to be a tsundere and mad about it though'. And it took days for anyone to point out the paper to me." Dororo started sniffling, "But...I guess that wasn't your fault." He awkwardly replied, "That wasn't you. It was a different Keroro."

Keroro frowned at the words 'different Keroro'. He could barely remember that event that Dororo was talking about. All that fake past was slowly disappearing.

"So…..Umm...I feel kind of awkward hugging you but I can sit by your side. Until you calm down. I want to help you after all." Dororo offered, he didn't sound too sure of himself. A little nervous to be offering help, like Keroro would reject it. Or use it.

Keroro glanced up. "...Why are you trying to comfort me? Why are you offering comfort? There's nothing between us."

Before Dororo could answer Keroro just kept speaking. He had been rejected by so many friends. Dororo offering his help was just bizarre to him. "Even in our supposed childhood I didn't get to know you that well. I just used and exploited you. So there's no pretend fake memories for you to be attached to. In my real life I barely know you because I was too busy forgetting you and you were too busy being mad at me. So why try to help me? I'm your fake childhood friend. I'm not real. You've got to realize that by now."

Dororo grabbed Keroro's hand and shook his head, almost as if he felt bad for Keroro for saying that. "You may have been a fake platoon leader. A fake friend… But I want to try to make you a real friend."

Keroro just looked at Dororo speechless. _That's...That's what I suggested to Tamama. That's what I wanted from Tamama._ Could Dororo be for real?

"The past may be bad." Dororo tried to tell him, "But you've got to look towards the future. There's always something to look forward to and something better. Don't try to live in the past. You're you because you make your own path in the future."

Keroro was just speechless. He felt his face wet with small tears but he didn't touch them or wipe them. "Why….Why don't you hate me like everybody else does?" Keroro just found himself asking.

Was Dororo just giving him comfort out of pity? Dororo was known to be a nice guy. That sounded like Dororo. "All the fun times we had as children were based around lies. Your childhood friend wasn't me. The person you cared for is dead and I replaced them.." Keroro found himself babbling.

Dororo just looked at him with sympathy. "That...That might be true. My friend...My friends since it seems I interacted with multiple Keroros...They're all dead." Dororo replied with some sadness. "Your memories are all that remains of their life."

"Then why don't you hate me? If I didn't exist...They might. One of them could have lived longer. I only exist because they died." Keroro pointed out.

"You've said one thing wrong." Dororo sighed. "I don't miss the past or the ' _fun times as children._ '" He quoted. "It's true that we were all just children, but a lot of those supposed fun times revolved around a joke at my expense. Those fun times were my torment and are the reason I am traumatized to this day. Even if things might have been an innocent joke at the time they went way too far repeatedly. I broke bones but just from a simple apology I would forgive Keroro and come back."

Keroro paled. Had things really been that bad for Dororo? He never realized. He knew Dororo had said his body had become stronger because of injuries from accidents with Keroro and that it had led him on the path of the assassin, but that sounded terrifying. Dororo's voice carried bitterness and like he didn't care for the past at all.

"Keroro manipulated me so many times. So eventually I became bitter at the fun times and the past." Dororo replied. He glanced at Keroro and saw the grief and regret in his face.

"I'm so sorry! I had no idea I was so bad!" Keroro apologized. "I thought we were just playing around like kids do-"

Dororo smiled a little, to try to reassure Keroro that he was no longer mad and had left it in the past and forgiven him. "Do not worry. You bare none of that guilt. It wasn't you who hurt me."

"But-" Keroro tried to point out.

"If Tamama and Giroro can say you aren't important to them because it wasn't really you in a past incident than I can say you haven't hurt me because it wasn't you during a past incident, correct?" Dororo used Tamama and Giroro's logic. "And either way, I learned to forgive you. I am responsible for my own actions now. I have grown and so have you. I was...Mad at you and ignored the facts that you had changed but if I had been more observant I would have realized just how greatly you had changed. That you in fact were a different person." Dororo looked apologetic. "I am sorry."

Keroro was caught off guard again. This entire conversation with Dororo was not going like he had envisioned it.

"….You...You shouldn't forgive me so easily though...I hurt you." Keroro was stuck in his way of thinking.

"It wasn't you." Dororo replied. "It was a clone-"

"It was me." Keroro insisted. "In a way I mean. All of the Keroro's...I have their memories. They're fading from me, but if I'm truly a god they were at least a tiny piece of me. That means a piece of me has the potential to be that cruel." He cowered and put his head in his hands.

"I've...I've seen that before. I know it. I've seen it when we faced the Garuru Platoon. When they cloned a child version of me and that child was a born invader. Just some selfish child dictator. That was my potential." Keroro reminded. "All...All of the clones are just pieces of the original Keroro. Just as the flawed and terrified version of myself is part of me, those other Keroro's are pieces of me too. Even cruel, ruthless and manipulative Keroros. They're all me."

He waited for Dororo to look angry, storm off or just be disgusted. But instead he listened. He didn't seem all that surprised by Keroro's words and instead nodded along as he spoke as if he believed them and it made sense to him.

"So that mean Keroro was just as much a part of me as the flawed Keroro that I am today." Keroro tried to end, he waited for Dororo to refute him.

Dororo thought for a moment. "You've forgotten one important piece of information though. And that's a piece of information that's relevant to all of the Keroros and how their personalities were formed."

Keroro looked confused. _What did I forget?_ "What?"

"Nurture. You've only explained nature in your speech, but not anything about nurture and how the people around you and your clones interacted. You've got to remember that the people around you and those clones formed the first days of your life and minutes. That probably helped concrete your personality and your life choices in that clone's path." Dororo reminded.

Keroro just looked confused. He tilted his head.

Dororo smiled, ready to explain his theory. "You are a god. And thus you don't follow our rules, the rules of society and the universe. You don't follow the exact same morals that everybody is supposed to learn and follow. You're supposed to form your own morals and pathway." Dororo reminded. "The people around you- specifically the people who knew you were a god and raised you and watched you, knew you followed other morals and rules. Sub-consciously instead of imparting wisdom or boundaries or rules they must have just given you whatever you wanted because how could they refuse their god?" Dororo asked. "In most of your lives you've been insanely privileged with many benefactors watching your every move. Everybody expected you to have the right morals, nobody taught you any."

"I...I don't understand." Keroro frowned.

Dororo sighed. "Even in this life you've been given a lot of leeway with our fake invasion. None of the higher ups wanted to displease you so they never sent any real threats or pressure because in reality they were frightened of you and wanted you to give them priveledges if you ever awakened as a God. They didn't want to be punished. So you were pretty much given everything you wanted." Dororo pointed out.

"Everybody worships you, Keroro. So when you were a child, when you were an adult you faced no real negative repercussions from the important adults in your life and higher ups. There was never any punishments so you were never told not to push children off swing seats like you did in childhood with me." Dororo pointed out. "Some versions of you might have been nicer than others because they were surrounded by more people who didn't know of your God-hood, but it's very likely that the lives that had the adults lying to you featured most prominently were more cruel than the others."

"This is also why being called a failure was such a shock to you when Keron told us the invasion was a lie. You had gotten everything you wanted previously. And when the platoon started leaving you you couldn't fathom it because nobody would ever dare leave your friendship. People were honored to be in your presence Keroro. And it wasn't because you were cool. It was because you were secretly a God." Dororo explained.

Keroro listened in awe. A lot of what Dororo was saying made sense. "What….What about the Keroro that Tamama met then? I don't have any memories of that life but the way Tamama describes him he sounds...Perfect. Super heroic and the opposite of any of those cruel and privileged Keroro's."

Dororo frowned. He really had no answer about that Keroro. Likely only Tamama knew about him. "It's odd that you don't have any memories of him...Shouldn't you have fake memories of all of your lives so that you wouldn't have started suspecting things and they would have kept consistent?"

Keroro nodded.

"...Do you think...It's possible that he could have realized what was going on? I mean...I know it's odd to imagine an observant Keroro, but you are a god. Perhaps he had the power of observation and that was his one skill. Perhaps because he had a bigger view of the universe than just himself and you he was kinder." Dororo shook his head. "But that's just guesses."

"That...That could be it..." Honestly Keroro didn't know. But some of what Dororo was saying made sense. He should have remembered that Dororo had an eye for philosophy!

"You're a clone of the Keronian God. But you're also a child in morals because you actually haven't been alive that long. All your clones have barely been a year old." Dororo reminded, "You are a child and it was the keronian's job to teach you correct morals as a basically baby moral-less God!" He frowned. "But they never did. Instead they just rewarded your entitled ass because they thought it was good and showed your superiority to them and hoped desperately that it was the signs of you becoming a God."

"But...But it wasn't. None of those cruel and manipulative lasted longer than a year. They didn't have my lifespan and they didn't ascend to God-hood." Keroro was mostly talking to himself now.

Dororo shook his head. "No. It was your grief and humbleness that unlocked who you truly were. Nothing like being better than others. Nothing of the sort." He agreed.

Keroro was silent as he tried to recollect his thoughts. Dororo broke the silence though.

"I'm sorry, Keroro." Dororo apologized. "I may lecture the other keronians in your life for not teaching you morals but I'm no better. I didn't forgive you for a long time and held a grudge on you. I should have been nicer to you." Dororo frowned, "I should have been there for you and called you out sooner. I should have been helping teach you right from wrong. I could have made you into a different person than you are today- I was basically there when you were a day old I bet!" Dororo sounded mad at himself for as if he bore some of the irresponsibility.

"Whoa, hold up, Dororo. It's not your fault. You didn't know." Keroro pointed out.

Dororo tried to conceal his anger. He untightened his fist. "I know...But still...When you ascend to God hood...I want Keron to have a benevolent God. One that will lead the people to be better and a kinder species." Dororo admitted. "And...I can't fully say that the current version of you can do that. You haven't ever been taught to be..."

"Responsible? Smart enough to lead people into kindness?" Keroro suggested.

"Perhaps that's just my past grudge talking but I feel like if I had known before...Before the final stretch I could have helped taught you. But now who knows when you will fully ascend to God hood? You've got very little time and to try to cram those lessons into you would probably fall on deaf ears." Dororo sighed.

Keroro nodded. He didn't believe in himself either. _I can't be the God you're hoping for. I can't even be Keroro so how could I be a good God?_

"I hope...I hope you can be a good God though. I want to believe in you." Dororo admitted with a small smile.

And for a moment to Keroro just someone wanting to believe in him was enough. It was better than anything he had right now.

* * *

Talking about the younger versions of Keroro had gotten Dororo remembering the person he had once called friend.

A lot of what he had said he had been thinking about over the week. Although part of him still blamed that Keroro, he was realizing more and more that the various clones were victims themselves too.

 _For a time...They were my friends. He was my friend the young Keroro. He was everything to me. My very first friend._ Dororo recalled. His world had revolved around Keroro.

And that made him sad to think about, to realize that there was no path of redemption for the clone Keroro. They couldn't ever get past their previous mistakes because of their tragic fates.

 _He played with Giroro and I. I can remember him being right there. But...He's gone now._ Dororo looked to his side.

It hurt his heart to think that the truth had never been learned by the previous Keroro's. Or worse, what if they had learned in their final moments? The moments that Dororo hadn't been there for and could only guess at. _He never knew he was a clone._

Dororo remembered every little bit of their childhood. He remembered every memory of Keroro. He could recall it as if it was yesterday making secret bases with him and Giroro.

" _Come on, Zeroro! I'm going to be the King of the Keron kingdom!"_ Child Keroro would say standing on the top of the fort like a king. _"Giroro's my loyal soldier. You can be a villager I guess, Zeroro."_

Dororo closed his eyes remembering the moment.

" _Wahhh! But I don't want to be a villager! I want to be a soldier like Giroro! You're so mean, Keroro!"_

And Keroro would smile and stick out his tongue. That was their childhood days.

As he recalled the various memories of him and Keroro playing together, one floated to the top of his head. One stuck out.

And it made his stomach turn.

* * *

He remembered it all. But one day in their childhood was extremely different than the other days. Keroro had been sick and missed school.

"Keroro really missed some interesting stuff!" Giroro had gossiped. "But...Maybe I'm just saying that because without Keroro we finally got to listen to the lecture."

"You're being too mean to, Keroro." Pururu scolded. "I always listen. It's your own fault for not paying attention. Then you have to get Garuru to tutor you."

"No! It's Keroro's fault!" Giroro insisted as he walked home with Pururu and Zeroro. They had decided that they would study for a test at his house. Without Keroro they actually had some time to study. Or at least Giroro did.

"Do you think Keroro is okay? It was really sad to hear from the teacher that he had a cold." Zeroro finally said.

"People get colds all the time." Giroro waved his hand.

"Yeah, he'll be fine." Pururu agreed. "Bed rest is the best medicine after all. Nobody died from a cold."

Giroro nodded vigorously agreeing with everything Pururu said.

Zeroro just pouted and glared. "Ummm...That's like incredibly untrue? I get sick all the time and it's really dangerous." He looked away, "I know how bad a cold is and how lonely it is to be sick."

"It's not that bad. You just got the sniffles for a day." Giroro tried to reassure him.

"Not if it's a bad cold!" Zeroro insisted. "Keroro...Keroro would send paper airplanes through my window sometimes when I was sick. It...It was sweet. I...I don't want him to be lonely. So...Why don't we deliver his homework to him or something? I want...I want to return the favor of what he's done for me."

"That's dumb." Giroro told him, "We'll probably get sick if we visit him. Then we'll all be sick."

"I think that's a really sweet idea, Zeroro!" Pururu complimented. "And it will give Keroro no excuse to skip out on his homework. We can study with him and do it together."

Giroro sighed. If Pururu said it was a good idea he guessed he had to go along with it. He was out voted after all.

"Fine. Let's go wish Keroro get well. His house is pretty close to mine." Giroro agreed.

Zeroro smiled. He was so excited to do something good for someone else! Keroro was sure to appreciate the visitors.

* * *

They made a get well card before they visited. It had all sorts of colorful drawings of the four of them playing together.

" _Get well soon, Keroro! I think you might just be sick to skip the test but if you're really sick do some push-ups or something to get better."_ Read Giroro's part of the card.

" _I'm not going to nurse you back to health. That's weird. However I did borrow some shots from my mom. I think they're for Tetanus but I'm sure they'll help somehow. I'll just jam them in! First time for everything, right?"_ Read Pururu's part.

" _Keroro...I know what it's like being sick and lonely. I'll help you in anyway you can. Just remember you're always surrounded by friends. We miss you at school._ " Zeroro wrote.

He hoped Keroro didn't make fun of him. But he was mostly just worried about Keroro's health.

Giroro didn't knock on Keroro's door. "Dad just barges in." He explained as Pururu organized Keroro's missing homework assignments that they were delivering and Dororo held onto the card.

The door opened slightly but they weren't greeted by Keroro's face. Instead it was the Demon Sergeant, Keroro's father. "W-what...I told you Guchacha, now's not a good time!" For some reason he spoke Giroro's father's name as he spun around.

Giroro looked confused. "It's just me. D-dad said I could come here whenever I needed to and Zeroro and I-"

Keroro's father frowned deeply stressed. "I'm sorry. Now's not a good time. You've got to go." He rushed the children out the door. "I told him to keep his kids away from here today!" He groaned.

Giroro glanced at Zeroro and Pururu confused. The door was slammed shut in front of them.

"W-what now? They didn't even hear our request about wanting to tell Keroro to get well soon!" Zeroro felt distraught like they had been rejected. Was there any hope?

Giroro knocked on the now locked door but Keroro's parents did not come to answer it.

They could hear people talking from inside.

"Come here." Giroro dragged his friend's heads to the wall. "Maybe we can hear what they're saying about Keroro! I have good ears after all."

Zeroro nodded and meekly tried to listen.

It was pretty easy to hear despite the wall. Keroro's mother was letting out loud wails, she was obviously sobbing.

"There...There." Keroro's father sounded to be trying weakly to help her. He sounded like he was trying too hard though.

"I can't do this!" She shouted. "I can't keep doing this!" She repeated.

"You say that every time. But we keep doing it." Keroro's father told her. "I'm...I'm here for you though. I understand you. I...I can think about it for both of us."

"No! I'm serious! I want out! It's too hard!" She sobbed.

Giroro grimaced. "Umm...Should we be listening to this? Oh….Oh no...If Keroro stayed home from school because of domestic stuff..." He tried to pull Pururu and Zeroro away, but Pururu leaned in closer.

"What do you mean, Giroro?" Pururu asked.

"I...I remember my dad saying that same thing to my mom before they split." Giroro admitted.

Zeroro turned pale. Were Keroro's parents fighting? Was that why they didn't want them to visit right now?

Still he continued listening in, along with Pururu.

"You've got to stay. Think of Keron. You're doing your duty. Think of Keroro eventually." Keroro's father tried to convince.

"I don't want to hear that name!" Keroro's mother sobbed. "And I don't care about my duty anymore! I've done enough for the military. I want to retire. I want to stop this. I want...I want to have a kid."

Giroro perked up. "Oh? They're...Not fighting? They just want to give Keroro a younger sibling?" Suddenly he inched closer again.

"I know..." Keroro's father sighed. "But...You know that can't happen. We've tried reproducing, remember? Our harsh truth is that it's just not going to happen." He sighed. "I've heard it's happening more and more in adults. For some reason children are being born exponentially less. The next generation is going to have an even tougher time. It's not just us."

Keroro's mother's crying got softer. There wasn't much more talking they could hear.

"We should probably go. I think Keroro's parents...Are talking about some very important issues." Pururu suggested. She had heard some rumors about reproductive issues and didn't want to get too involved in their private life.

Zeroro held the get well card tighter. "But...But Keroro...We didn't even get to see him..."

"Come on, Zeroro." Giroro tried to get Zeroro's attention.

Zeroro shook his head. "I...I want to see Keroro. He needs me. He needs us."

"Zeroro! We're going home." Pururu insisted. "We want to give Keroro's folks some privacy. It's the polite thing to do."

Giroro watched Zeroro and how he was unsatisfied. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "I'll help you sneak in. I know the window to Keroro's room."

"Giroro! You're encouraging him! You're going to get in trouble!" Pururu scolded, gasping.

"I can take it. You can go home though if you want. We don't need to drag you into this." Giroro told her.

She frowned but nodded. She didn't want to get in trouble too.

Zeroro hugged Giroro. "Thanks Giroro!"

"No problem. I know you wouldn't let that get well card go. And it's probably for the best. You're doing the right thing. The good thing." Giroro smiled.

He led Zeroro to Keroro's window. Grabbing a vine, he threw it up to the windowsill, managing to get it to hook in somehow. "Climb in. I used to do this all the time when I was even younger."

Zeroro nodded, smiling a lot. He climbed in first. Giroro followed closely after.

Zeroro smiled. "Keroro! Me and Giroro came to wish you well-" He stopped immediately as he looked at Keroro's room.

It was all white. Everything, the carpet, the wallpaper, had been stripped away. The door was closed and there was no Keroro in the room.

There was no clues that he had ever even been there. None of his stuff was in boxes, his bed was missing, everything was completely gone.

"W-what...What is this?" Giroro asked. "Where's Keroro?" He covered his mouth. Even Giroro felt like his nerves had been frozen.

"T-they...They probably quarantined him." Zeroro came up with an explanation. "It happens in rare cases when you're really sick with something extremely contagious. They even burn your stuff. Keroro's cold must have been much worse than we thought."

"Oh...Oh no!" Giroro frowned. "That's awful."

They heard foot-steps approaching the room.

"I heard voices." Keroro's mother said. "It must be Keroro!" She suddenly brightened up.

"No! He's not here! You know that. I know that. He's not here!" Keroro's father sounded like he was running down the hall to stop his wife.

Giroro and Zeroro glanced at each other. They both knew when to bolt.

They ran for it. Keroro wasn't there after all. Keroro's father had said that. He was away sick somewhere.

So they left the house and ran as far from it as they could.

* * *

It took two days for Keroro to recover. It was actually surprisingly short for his illness. When Zeroro saw him again at school he bounded up to him and handed him the get well card.

Keroro looked at it confused. "What is this?" He asked.

"A get well card! It's from all of us!" Zeroro smiled

Keroro just continued to stare at him blankly and extremely confused.

"All...Of...Us?" He repeated.

"Yep! Like me-" Zeroro smiled perkily

"And who were you again?" Keroro asked blankly.

Zeroro cried. "I'm Zeroro! Why do you always have to forget about me? Zeroro! Zeroro!" He repeated.

"That's just normal Keroro stuff." Giroro teased. "Glad to see your better, man. Your quarantined had me worried there." He told him.

Keroro looked blankly at Giroro and Zeroro for a moment. And then he smiled. "Oh yeah! My quarantine! Man I don't remember anything from it. I sure must have been sick." He laughed. "Did I already miss the test?"

"Not yet, Keroro." Pururu smiled at him.

"Darn." Keroro frowned.

And they all laughed.

Dororo remembered that laughter fondly. But the memory of Keroro's sickness he was slowly starting to realize the truth behind it.

There was no quarantine. There was no sickness. He as a young child along with Giroro had wandered into a scene where a clone Keroro had died and all his possessions had been removed. Then immediately after a new Keroro had replaced him.

And the only clue that this Keroro was a day old was a 'who were you again?' which Dororo had brushed off as normal.

His stomach was cold at the memories of Keroro's mothers tears. How she had probably seen Keroro's death and how ignorant he had been to the death surrounding him as a child.

 _One clone died and was immediately replaced by another. The people around him were just supposed to act like they were the same person. I acted like they were the same person._ Dororo realized with horror.

Keroro's life wasn't filled with privilege and luxuries. No, the full truth was that Keroro had a tragic life. One doomed to early death.

That moment of almost finding about the cloning etched into Dororo's mind the tragic life of being a Keroro. He was replaceable. The only thing that ever meant a Keroro existed was the memories they had formed. Be that memories in other people or the current Keroro. That was the only thing that etched their existence into the world.

Keroro was still by his side, slowing down his breathing.

"You exist now." Dororo tried to reassure him. He knew Keroro must be realizing too how replaceable the past Keroro's were. "The future holds promise and so does the present you. Do not focus on yesterday. Focus on today."

Keroro smiled. "Thanks Dororo. I'm...I'm glad to have you as a friend. A real friend."

Dororo smiled. He hoped he could live up to being a real friend to Keroro.

 _I want to agree with him. I want to make a new Keroro. One without this baggage._ Keroro thought. But could he?

He could very well try. And there was one person he wanted to be a New Keroro for more than ever. To remedy his past mistakes.

* * *

Keroro went up to Tamama. If there ever was a person he wanted to be important to this life only it was Tamama.

 _He...He might have been in love with another Keroro._ Keroro reminded himself. He knew that already. _But it's also true that our life together was important. He got to know me on Pekopon much more than any clone of me. We spent more time together._

Giroro and Dororo had both known a clone more than him. Kululu….He really knew very little about his take on the matter. Angol Mois he was pretty sure was a lost cause because she had seemed pretty darn obsessed with the old him.

But Tamama had actually gotten to know the current him. They had pulled pranks together on Pekopon. They had caused mischief. They had common interests. They had been friends. And whenever he was feeling down, Tamama had always been there. Tamama would always cheer him up.

 _I don't want to be typical and run into a lover's arms when I'm feeling sad, but…._ Keroro couldn't really finish that statement, because he really really wanted to run into Tamama's arms. He wanted Tamama to hold him and say that he was still important to him.

And for a moment he had confidence that that would happen.

 _There's hope that he'll choose me. That other Keroro couldn't have been that cool after all. He'll definitely choose me. He knew me longer. He was with me more. We had fun together._ Keroro told himself.

He walked straight up to Tamama, shushing his fears. "Tamama...I know you were in love...In love with another me, but the current version of me is the one that exists today. You can't truly believe that you don't feel anything for me like friendship, right? We had a lot of fun times together. We have a history-, we have memories." Keroro instantly regretted saying the word 'memories'. Memories seemed very fake to him at the moment.

And Tamama was probably questioning if anything was really real or genuine from Keroro.

Tamama just looked at him with a look of sadness, and almost heart-break. Clearly he wondering if Keroro really had any memories at all. He didn't say anything at all.

"T-tamama...P-please. I thought you'd be there for me. You're...You're-" _Special to me. Important to me. I need you._ "My friend."

"Am I?" Tamama asked. "Is...Is anything ever real to you? You're a clone. What kind of personality did they implant in you to make their God? Did you ever find me worthwhile? Or did you only ever want me around to stroke your own ego?" Tamama asked harshly.

Keroro groaned. Those words hurt.

"I'm...I'm sorry." Tamama eventually said. "It's...It's just a big shock. That the person I loved isn't you. That he'll never get to thank him because he's dead."

"But...I'm here. He's somewhere here inside me—I'm sure of it. I have my other clone's memories." Keroro said desperately. _You can still love me._

Tamama shook his head. "You two are not the same. I...I need to have some time away from the current Keroro of this year." He pointed to Keroro, "I...I just feel so betrayed. I gotta get my thoughts in order."

Keroro couldn't say anything in his defense as Tamama left. He just dropped to his knees. "But...I am him. I am Keroro. I'm none of the Keroro's. And all of them..." He just wanted Tamama back. But Tamama wasn't there to listen.

And he knew he couldn't get Tamama back by using that Clone's life to his advantage. _I don't remember anything from that life. Not snippets. Not bits and pieces. Nothing._

The fairy tale romance that Tamama spoke of- the heroic moment- it didn't exist to Keroro. It was locked away somewhere in his mind, in a vault he couldn't access. That Keroro was keeping his secrets from even him.

For a second he remembered something. It was back when Tamama had asked him why he saved him. Keroro of course hadn't known why because he hadn't remembered it, but for some reason words had come out of his mouth anyway.

 _They were his words. The clone's body is dead but his mind still holds some control._ He tried to remember what he had said to Tamama. _"Because I wanted something that was just mine. A precious memory to always have when I was sad."_

His mind whirled back to his conversation with Dororo and the hypothesis that his clone had started to figure out about his life as a clone and the inevitable doom he faced towards being replaced when he died.

 _He….He knew?_ Keroro realized. That made sense why he barely remembered that life. He bet that guy was still hanging around in his memories and mind preventing him from opening them. He wanted something that made him special, that the current Keroro couldn't replace. And that special thing was his bond was Tamama.

 _He really stuck it to me. Tamama hates me because of that guy._ Keroro thought to himself. If he could just remember...But he could not. He knew that sometimes words would come out of his mouth that weren't his own- it was that Keroro who managed to grab onto his consciousness and stay lying in wait.

He wondered if he was just some sort of host body for a million trapped souls of cobbled together clones of a God that was supposed to be dead. Just various clones that were never supposed to exist. He...Hadn't ever thought that some of them might still have conciseness and wishes but that Keroro sounded like he did.

Closing his eyes he tried to focus on that Keroro. But all he could feel was anger at himself for trying to get in Tamama's life. _Ah...I get it._ Keroro realized.

 _Tamama was special to you too. You chose him to be the one person to remember you, to have a memory with._ That Keroro was in love with Tamama wasn't he? He could feel it somewhere in his heart.

 _That makes sense why I sometimes feel protective of Tamama. Why I want his attention so much. One of my past selves loved him._ Or maybe his current self loved him. He honestly didn't know if it was both or one of them.

He could no longer separate his emotions from his previous selves. He couldn't distinguish them since all his previous emotions and thoughts had been fake memories. Was he at war with himself over Tamama? Did he want Tamama to himself just like that other Keroro had wanted?

He didn't know. At the moment he knew less about himself than anything.

All he knew was how other people perceived him. How Tamama didn't want him, how his friends were mad at him, how Dororo wanted him to become a better person. He knew nothing except others opinions.

 _The only thing I'm sure about towards my own feelings is that I'm hurt._ He had never been that good at not being dense. _It hurts that Tamama cast me aside._

That was all that he knew.

* * *

They finally arrived at Keron after a long flight trip. The ship hovered over what was no longer covered in greenery. Keroro knew enough about war to know it was a battlefield.

"S-so...The Keroro platoon's going out there, huh?" Keroro asked, nervously. He glanced at Giroro and Tamama sitting across the table.

They'd be out there with him at least. He wouldn't be alone.

"They'll be on the ship watching your progress." The colonel frowned. A hatch opened and Keroro could feel the air against his skin.

Giroro handed him a parachute apparently having already been told about things. "Don't sweat like that! You're a god, right? You should be able to handle it on your own. You've gotta defeat the Vipers. They're really tearing Keron apart."

"Ku, ku, ku. You have the power. Just do it quick so we can all go home." Kululu told him.

Tamama just looked away.

Dororo frowned. _Is...Is this my fault?_ He wondered. _Keroro has to face a bunch of Vipers alone because I released the flyians….So is this all my fault somehow?_ "Maybe...Maybe it isn't a good idea to send Keroro out there alone..." Nobody listened to him as usual.

"You're….Pushing me out!?" Keroro asked in shock.

The colonel started pushing him towards the hatch. "You have the power to take out the Vipers and the flyians yourself. Do well and we will be pleased."

Before Keroro could say anything else he was pushed out of the ship. "AHHHH!" He screamed. He opened the parachute as quickly as he could, just as he had usually done in class. _A clone did in class. A clone took a class on parachuting. Not me._ Keroro reminded.

He managed to drop to safety anyhow landing on the blood soaked battlefield. He covered his mouth when he saw all the keronian bodies over the place. They were half eaten- the other half rotting.

He felt nauseous. Disgusted.

 _I'll fair no better than them. They're delusional if they think I can do this on my own!_ Keroro thought to himself. He looked at the ship as it flew a safe distance away to watch him from satellite cameras. "Screw this! I can't do anything!" _I don't really have powers like they say I do. I haven't done anything extraordinary since that first time I caught the flyians._

He started to just walk away. He was not going to survive this. He couldn't just go straight out onto the battlefield and say "god powers' and then everything would be over.

He didn't get very far, even when he picked up his pace. He ran into a group of Vipers quickly. The Vipers eyes didn't have any white's in them any longer, instead Keroro saw pure black and it took him a moment to realize that a mass of flyians were wriggling inside the Vipers.

"A Keronian got lost on the battlefield?" One Viper said raising his gun arm. The Viper laughed. "Ha! What did the Keron Military think would happen if they sent one last keronian? They're so dumb."

"We'll just eat him and make things fast. Then we can go conquer some more cities." One of the other Vipers said.

"Is the little frog going to scream and cry? What a dumb looking thing he is." The Viper mocked.

Keroro whimpered. This was like seven super powered Vipers in front of him! He had no weapons, and he doubted he had any real powers.

 _I will die if I stay here. Just like any of the other Keroro's. Then I'll be replaced just like them. I'll never get to see Giroro, Dororo, Tamama or Kululu again._ Keroro realized.

He looked down at his hands. He truly doubted he had any power. He couldn't win a war for the government.

So instead of doing something important he ran- he ran as fast as he could away from the Vipers. "AHH! I'm out of here! I don't want any part of this!"

The Vipers just watched him go laughing.

Keroro continued running for hours. Hoping to eventually get out of the battlefield. He seemed to know the geography of this part of the planet despite never having visited there, and eventually he found a hiding place that he was confident the Vipers and the colonel couldn't find him in.

Then he just cowered for the rest of the night and cried to himself.

* * *

The colonel frowned. "We've lost Keroro's location."

"What? I thought bringing his precious platoon mates as leverage would get him to do his duty!" The Demon Sergeant frowned. "Well, this Keroro always was a bit of an idiot and a coward...We should have predicted this better."

"He...He ran away?" Agugu asked. "Does he know that we're going to kill his platoon mates and friends if he runs?"

"I doubt it." The colonel frowned. He glanced at the fragments of the Keroro platoon. "They don't look like they've told him. Doesn't really help as leverage if they're ignoring him."

"Perhaps we should have captured Fuyuki Hinata instead. I've heard he's his pekoponian friend." The Demon Sergeant frowned. "But I thought he cared for his platoon mates."

The platoon listened somewhat. Giroro was frowning and pounding his fists on the table about Keroro abandoning his duty. Kululu didn't look happy at all either and was arguing with Giroro about how best to locate him so that they didn't pay for Keroro's mistakes. Tamama just said nothing as usual.

"Send me out." Dororo finally said. "I'll find him. As an assassin it was my job to find runaways. I'm the one with the most skill to locate him."

Agugu looked confused. "You'd willingly go into a battlefield infested with the flyians and Vipers?"

Dororo nodded. "I'm not afraid of the Vipers or the flyians." _The flyians bare me no ill will after all. I think they'd let me through pretty easily._ He had released them after all.

He didn't want Giroro, Kululu or Tamama to get hurt just because Keroro hadn't known they'd be punished for his cowardice. And he didn't want Keroro to blame himself for a war that Dororo had indirectly started.

"All right. You...You can go. But...If you die, it is not our responsibility." The colonel told him. "This is your own choice."

"If I die, I die as a Keron soldier doing my duty." Dororo lied. He had no intention of dying or being a Keron soldier. Keron could die for all he cared.

They opened the hatch and Dororo jumped out of the ship.

* * *

It took a few hours of tracking but Dororo was just as skilled as he boasted. It didn't take long at all for him to find Keroro hiding under some debrief.

It looked like a building that had fallen and Keroro was hiding under a slab of concrete. Despite it being actually quite in sight nobody seemed to notice it besides Dororo. Keroro's loud wails of crying seemed to not give away his position either.

 _The air here..._ Everything was still like it was frozen in time. As Dororo entered Keroro's little bubble he realized that without Keroro's knowledge, Keroro had made himself a little hidey-hole with his god power. _Because Koyuki taught me about the spirits and how to sense them I was able to find Keroro's location. All satellites and enemies weren't though._

It was just like Keroro to think he was hiding when he was in plain view. Dororo smiled thinking back to the child clone version of him too. Keroro always had a sense of childishness.

Keroro wailed louder. "I'm scared! I don't want to die! T-they...They can't make me fight! I don't have any power!" Around him little rocks seemed to move in the air stacking above him to make a bigger fortress of solitude.

 _Agugu and the colonel was right...He does have power. He is a God. I think he's the only one who won't accept that right now though._ Dororo realized.

"I can't do it alone! That's impossible! I'm no God! They just think I am. I'm powerless!" Some of the debrief crumbled around him into ash at those words.

"Keroro." Dororo said gently, making himself known. Would Keroro notice him? Or would his power make him disappear even from him? "I'm here."

Keroro sniffled. "D-dororo…? What are you doing here? Why...Why did you find me?"

"I was looking for you." Dororo smiled gently. He knew Keroro was scared and opened his arms. Keroro needed help. And he needed to give it despite his own feelings. "It's time to go back to reality. We've...We've got to end this war."

"I don't want to!" Keroro screamed. "All I want to do is go back to my platoon mates and my friends! All I want is you guys! I don't want to fight!"

Dororo frowned. "I'm sorry...They...They don't see you as a platoon mate anymore. Or a friend. I...I'm not going to lie to you."

Keroro cried harder.

"I could though. I keep telling you that. I could be your friend. A real friend...Not a plaything like your clone self saw me. Please...Make our friendship a reality in this lifetime." Dororo offered.

Keroro sniffled but tried to wipe away his tears. He nodded. "O-okay...I'll be your friend. Your real friend. I...I want to be your real friend, Dororo. You're...You're the only one forgiving me for not being the real Keroro. So...I'll listen to you." He stood up. "Do….Do I really have to end this war?" He looked timid, scared.

"I think you should end this war. But..." Dororo looked around. They still seemed to be trapped in a timeless bubble where nobody could see. "I don't think you should fight in it."

Keroro looked shocked. That was exactly what he wanted to hear!

"You are a god. You have the power to stop this. To create a New Keron. The reason they're fighting us is because Keronians have been cruel and tried to use people and eat other species that are sentient. You need to create a new Keron that doesn't use other species as tools. That doesn't require useless revenge. A Keron that doesn't trap a God in a mortal body. A Keron that doesn't upset the natural order." Dororo's eyes shined with conviction. "Only you can do that Keroro. Only you can truly stop this war and the many wars of the future that I am sure our people will start."

"I….I don't know how to do that though, Dororo." It seemed a bit too hard. Keroro couldn't even figure out to beat someone in a fight. How could he make a whole new Keron? "How do I do that?"

"Either...You return to the heavens like you are supposed to." Dororo replied, "Or..." He handed Keroro his hand. "You run with me. I came looking for you because I knew only I would have the conviction to run."

"R-run? But I thought you wanted to end this war!" Keroro reminded.

"We can find other methods that aren't battle. Negotiation. But to do that the Flyians should defeat the evil of Keron so you can remake it. The higher ups in the military who created you and trapped you in a mortal body should probably end." Dororo nodded. "Death isn't the worst. As an assassin I learned that sometimes it's necessary."

Keroro just listened unsure of what to do. "W-what do you mean only you have the conviction?"

"Each of us members of the Keroro Platoon have been given a reason to stay and pressure you into fighting. Mine is because my mother is here. They think that I want this world to flourish to keep her safe. They don't realize how capable and strong she is on her own. The Vipers won't be able to touch her." Dororo smiled.

Keroro frowned. They were all being pressured? What had Giroro, Kululu and Tamama been told?

"Let's steal a ship and return to Pekopon. Koyuki and Fuyuki are waiting for us." Dororo smiled. "Then we can start rebuilding."

Keroro listened. He liked hearing that he didn't have to be here, but something tugged at his heart. _Oh yeah. This is my conscious._

It wasn't just his platoon mates he'd be leaving. It was all of Keron. He looked up at the sky. The sky looked frozen.

 _I love Keron. I've loved Keron during every single one of my lives._ Keroro realized. If he really was a God...This was a place he had created right?

At one point he had died for this place. The original him. The real God.

"I...I can't." Keroro realized. "The people here might be flawed, but Keron still has some good things. I can't just abandon it and start again. There are...Innocent keronians here. Keronians who have a whole life ahead of them. Ones that don't deserve to get eaten." Keroro replied. "I…I want to protect the legacies of the past and the possible Keron of the future. I am and always was a Keronian soldier. I am Sergeant Keroro."

"So you'll defeat the Vipers then?" Dororo asked. His eyes were shining because although he didn't agree with Keroro's path, Keroro sticking up for something he loved was admirable in its own way. _He's growing. He always did have this thing of when he gave a speech to protect something it would inspire others._ Keroro had a strong heart. He always had.

"I love this planet and the people here." Keroro realized. "My platoon and everybody else. I...I have to defeat the Vipers, but I stand by the fact that I can't do it alone. Nobody, not even a supposed God can do things on their own. I need help." Keroro reaffirmed.

"I understand. A God shouldn't be strapped down with fixing all of our mistakes. We should be responsible for ourselves and learn how to stand on our two feet." Dororo agreed. "We need to work together."

"I'm here now, Dororo. I know I have a job to do. I'm just scared to be alone. To do it alone." Keroro insisted.

 _Will I disappear? Will I run?_ Keroro wondered. He shook his head. He'd refuse all of Dororo's requests. "I...I won't just disappear and go back to Heaven because I'm upsetting the natural order. I'm a new Keroro. They brought me back and I'm here now. I'm here to stay." Keroro said firmly.

"Keron….The way Keron currently is now though...They won't embrace you as their God who loves the planet and wants to protect it." Dororo finally said. "I listened to the story of the original Keroro. I read about it while you were alone thinking about how you were a clone. It got to me. I would have very much liked to know him. I'm sure we would have gotten along." Dororo smiled.

"...But?" Keroro knew there was a but coming.

"They don't want you to be that type of God anymore. They want to use you as a tool and weapon of war. That's why you were created. The people have learned to stand on their own two feet too much. The military believes they make better decisions than even a god. All they care about is conquest. You realized that and tried to leave them so that they wouldn't use your power to gain the flyians to invade." Dororo reminded.

"I've got to make them see then that I'm just me. I'm no powerful super weapon-" Keroro tried to convince Dororo again.

"They will never see that. They don't want you to be you. They don't want you to have an identity. They don't want you to be a friend. They want you to be a tool!" Dororo took Keroro's arms. "Please! Let's go back to the beautiful Pekopon together. I don't want them to use you after this war. Go home to Pekopon with me. Be my friend. Remember me. Let's leave together."

Keroro just shook his head. "I refuse." He replied. "I have to fight the flyians. They hurt people. Just like they hurt Fuyuki."

Dororo dropped his hands off of Keroro. Something snapped in him when Keroro said that they hurt people. _They do...He's right...And I have caused so many deaths of keronians because I released them. I may have saved flyians lives and other lives that the keronians would have enslaved, but many of my own people died because of my actions._

 _I...I thought...If I could take Keroro away from this then maybe...Maybe the flyians could be defeated and I could repent for my mistake. The Keronians wouldn't have Keroro or the flyians and wouldn't be able to hurt anyone. They would be forced to change. Eventually I could help Keroro rebuild…._

But Keroro would have none of that. Keroro didn't know how much guilt Dororo was caring. How Dororo was feeling like the deaths that Keroro spoke of- the injured people and even Fuyuki, was somehow Dororo's own fault.

Dororo took out his sword. "I can not allow the Keronians to use you, Keroro. I will save you." He swore. "I will not let you be chained here any longer. Either I will bring you home with me...Or I will somehow release you to the heavens."

Keroro looked confused as Dororo took out the sword. "So you're going to take me to Pekopon by force? Abandon our friends like Giroro? He's your childhood friend, Dororo!"

"I have a job to protect you!" Dororo yelled as he launched himself at Keroro, "I have faith that Giroro can get out of this situation."

"What about Pururu? She lives here. She was your friend!" Keroro pointed out, trying to dodge Dororo's blows. They didn't look like they were there to harm him, just to try to direct Keroro into Dororo's grasp.

"She will be fine." Dororo tried to say.

"NOOO! I'm not going to just look the other way when a ton of keronians are in this mess! I just need to tell the colonel I need help on the battlefield!" Keroro's scream broke the bubble that was hiding him away.

Instantly the Vipers in the area glanced around from the loud noise. They immediately saw Keroro and Dororo.

"Crap." Keroro frowned. "See? Now we're both going to be dead because you thought you idea of what was right and good was better than mine."

Dororo dropped his sword. This was bad. "I...I didn't think it was better. I just wanted to help you. They're going to do terrible things, Keroro….If you truly felt like your opinion was better put your heart on the line and duel me."

"Two keronians spotted!" The Vipers ran over.

Keroro looked worried, he looked like he was ready to bolt. But Dororo knew with horror that the Vipers wouldn't kill them when he saw their flyian filled eyes.

The Vipers looked at the two of them. Instead of capturing them they circled the two of them, freezing and staring.

"W-what's going on?" Keroro assumed they were staring at him, unaware that all of the flyian eyes were on Dororo who they saw as a savior.

" _Do not attack them."_ The flyians voices buzzed in their minds. _"We...We recognize that blue one. It would be stupid of us not to."_

Keroro glanced over at Dororo. They recognized Dororo and not the Keronian god, him? That was something new.

Dororo gulped.

" _What are you doing here? We thought you wished for us to live in peace away from the keronians and be on our way. You released us after all. It is thanks to you that we are alive today."_ They said.

"YOU...YOU WHAT?" Keroro asked.

Dororo gulped. He didn't answer, Keroro, or look at him. "I am not in this battle by choice. I was brought here by the Keron military from Pekopon. They have told me if I do not remain my mother will be hurt."

" _So….So they use their own just as they use us. They are just as cruel as we envisioned them."_ They buzzed. _"We do not wish to fight you."_

"And I do not wish to fight you. Please leave so me and my friend can be on our way. I am trying to get us both to leave." Dororo confessed.

" _But will they allow that? Or will they hurt those who are important to you, shedding their blood? The keronians are cruel and like that. They will punish you for running."_ The flyians reminded.

Dororo's eyes widened, in horror. They were right! His shoulders slumped. If he ran with Keroro, they were sure to know it was his fault. They would come to Pekopon- they would probably hurt Koyuki or try to. "So..I am stuck?"

" _No. No you are not. You helped us out of our cage. Let us help you. We care nothing for the other keronians, but we know we owe you a great debt."_ They reminded Dororo. _"We have plenty of power and there are plenty of bodies here on the battlefield. Let us make one look like you. Fake your death and then leave. Then we won't have to fight. Go back to your Pekopon and live in peace."_

Dororo looked up at the flyians in surprise. They would help him? They would do that for him? He glanced at Keroro. But he couldn't leave Keroro, right? They were just starting a real friendship.

Keroro needed him to. He needed to get Keroro to leave.

Keroro looked disappointed in him. But things were starting to make sense. Dororo's actions, and how the flyians had gotten to the Vipers. _This isn't unexpected for Dororo._ He picked up Dororo's sword from the ground.

His hand was trembling. He didn't know if it was in anger at what Dororo had done, but he silenced that little bit of anger. "Did...Did you really do it? Did you really cause this whole problem?" Keroro asked.

Dororo nodded. "I did...But...They're offering to help. They've proven they aren't blood-thirsty. The flyians are just trying to take the bad keronians out of the world who would have and tried to hunt them." Dororo realized that it wasn't too different from what he wanted.

He sighed and dropped to the ground with his sword. "You know...Keroro, I never hated the idea of exile. I liked living on Pekopon with Lady Koyuki. I want to be with her again." He glanced at Keroro. "You...You should come with. We can get out of this. We can be friends again." There was hope to his voice, but also some unspoken words- he wanted to leave and he wanted to make sure Keroro was okay with that. That Keroro wouldn't try to stop him or tell the others.

 _I...I hurt him so much._ Keroro realized. _Well my clone did. He made his life miserable. Yet Dororo has been the first person to forgive me and be there for me. He's tried to be a friend to me. Tried to understand me. Even though I gave him some serious traumatization._ He felt tears well up in his eyes. How could Dororo be so kind?

"I can't abandon my platoon..." Keroro said refusing Dororo yet again.

Dororo frowned. Without Keroro he couldn't leave. Keroro would no doubt tell everybody where he went. _I don't know what to do._

Keroro smiled softly. "You know, Dororo...I never learned to let go during my time on Pekopon. You must remember how tightly I clung to the platoon. And then when they all learned I was a clone they left me in one foul swoop. All my clinging was for nothing. Boom!"

Dororo nodded. He didn't know where this was going.

"But let me learn now." Keroro smiled again. He dropped to Dororo's side and hugged him.

Dororo had never realized how much he wanted Keroro to be there for him and hug him, how much he wanted that support.

"I'll let you go." Keroro told him, "Fare-well, Dororo. Please...Have a good time on Pekopon. Tell Fuyuki I miss him."

"Won't...Won't you tell him yourself someday?" Dororo asked, feeling his voice about to break. He knew why Keroro was telling him this.

Keroro and Dororo both knew Keroro would never be allowed to return to Pekopon now that he was a God. He'd never see Fuyuki again.

"Keron will keep me on a tight leash from now on." Keroro replied. "Don't worry, Dororo...I'm going to end this war. And I'm going to end the cycle of Keroro's." He looked at Dororo. "You helped me a lot. I'll remember you if I become a true God. You were a good friend, Dororo. Please...Apologize to Fuyuki that I can't be his friend forever."

Dororo cried and hugged Keroro tighter. He said a million different good-byes to his friend. Eventually he quieted himself. "I'm...I'm proud of you." He composed himself. "I'm glad you were the one to ascend to God-hood. Out of all the Keroro's I've met, you're the one who's grown the most."

Dororo turned to the flyians who weren't really listening and instead preparing a body for Dororo. "Thank you for giving me an out like I gave you."

The Vipers bodies nodded in unison.

"Farewell, Keroro." Dororo waved.

The Vipers left Dororo's fake body with Keroro as Dororo ran off to find some sort of ship to go back to Pekopon.

Keroro silenced the little bit of anger still inside him at the fact that Dororo had caused the current situation. But at least he was no longer blaming Fuyuki.

And then he just waited for the Colonel to find him.

* * *

The Keronian ship collected Keroro who was sitting by the body that resembled Dororo. He didn't want to touch the dead body.

 _I couldn't expect anything different from Dororo. He's predictable. He's always the same in every one of my lives._ He was the same Dororo as in his memories. Of course he would try to protect those he thought were the victims.

Of course Dororo wanted to go home.

The colonel looked down at the fake Dororo body. "What happened?"

"He died trying to save me from a Viper attack." Keroro replied. "I'm...I'm sorry-"

Giroro pushed the colonel aside. "Dororo!" He yelled in horror as he dropped to the side of what he thought was his other childhood friend.

He looked at Keroro with grief like Keroro had personally killed both of his childhood friends- Keroro and Dororo. "T-this...This is all your fault! If you hadn't run...You aren't a soldier. You're nothing but a heartless clone!" Giroro yelled. "Dororo...You were the best friend I ever had." He just sobbed, harder and harder more and more distraught.

Even Kululu seemed slightly disgusted by the fact that Dororo had died because of Keroro. "Some God you are. Letting Dororo die because of your cowardice. But that's so like you. It's the Sergeant Keroro that I've grown to know."

Keroro tried to ignore their words. Kululu and Giroro had already cast him aside. This shouldn't hurt anymore. And Dororo wanted it this way.

Tamama just looked down at Keroro, his voice emotionless. "My Keroro wouldn't have left anyone to die. He was a hero."

Keroro's heart broke a little at the words 'my Keroro', like he wasn't that Keroro.

"Still...I didn't expect this from you." Tamama sounded a little confused. Like he slightly didn't believe it.

 _I need to explain it to them. That Dororo's not dead. They don't deserve to think this. To cry this much._

He waited until after the Colonel and Demon Sergeant had scolded him and he had explained that he wanted people to be on the field with him and that he would fight but only with others.

They eventually relented that they would give some thought on the matter and soon enough Keroro was given a chance to be left alone with the body and his platoon.

"He's not dead." Keroro tried to say.

"W-what? What do you mean! He's right here!" Giroro cried.

"N-no. We faked his death. He wanted to go back to Pekopon-. Do you really think I wouldn't be crying if Dororo was really legit dead? Am I that heartless?" Keroro asked.

Tamama shook his head. Giroro looked reluctant to agree. Kululu shrugged.

So Keroro explained the situation to them. How Dororo had freed the flyians and wanted them both to flee the battlefield.

He expected Giroro and Tamama to be overjoyed, but instead of his platoon mates suddenly liking him again their anger at him was suddenly replaced with anger at Dororo.

"We're in this mess cuz of Dororo?" Giroro said gruffly. "So first he dies- then he makes us all go through intense grief for him, then he runs away, but first he started a war just because he didn't want our species to invade? The flyians are evil. He should have given them to the keronians to eat!"

Kululu nodded. "I'm in a heap of trouble because of him."

"Even I'm a bit mad at Dororo!" Tamama agreed. "And right now I was only being bitter and angry at Mr. Ex-Sergeant! I forgot just how angry I could be at multiple people at once! There's enough hatred in me for a thousand people!"

Keroro tried not to listen to his platoon mates argue. He just left the room. _I don't want to hear it. Right now, Dororo was the only one who supported me._

He eventually came across one of the meeting rooms with the Colonel, Agugu and the Demon Sergeant.

"So did you think over my request? Will you send people out onto the battlefield with me?" Keroro asked.

"You are a god, Keroro. You don't need soldiers-" The Demon Sergeant tried to reason.

Keroro shook his head. "I'll help fight. I've decided that after seeing Dororo die. But...I want to fight together with Keron, not on my own."

"It won't do any good, you're a god. You're all we need-" The colonel tried to tell him.

"I'm an average keronian. I want to fight as a normal soldier. A normal sergeant. Not as a God." Keroro told them. "That's the only way I'm fighting. This is my planet. I'm a citizen of Keron. I want to protect it as any normal person would. Not as a God."

The group seemed to focus more on that it was the only way he was fighting. They looked among each other, but eventually relented and nodded.

"You're request has been approved. From now on we will not send you out alone." They reluctantly agreed.

Keroro smiled. He was taking his first step at retaking his normalness, and humanity back.

 _I am a Mortal. I can be an average guy._ Keroro insisted. _I'm no God. People can understand me. I don't have to become a tool._

He'd make them understand just how normal he was.

* * *

 **Alternate title: Zeroro gets told that you can't die from having a cold and looks into the camera like he's on the office.  
Also a big thanks to the people reading this story, you've really helped my motivation. It's just really nice to hear that you're enjoying it, even if it's just a small comment like "I love this story." One of my favorite ask/art blogs commented that they liked the story and it made me really happy. So thank you everyone who's been reading my story up to this point!**

 **I'll try to write more soon. And if you would like please review.**


	15. Who are you Fighting For?

**I managed to write another chapter before school. This one focuses on Giroro. I hope you enjoy.**

 **Also I apologize for Angol Mois not being in the last chapter (or even mentioned I think) I...Honestly forgot about her during the chapter summary. R.I.P. Too many characters on screen.**

* * *

Despite the setback of Dororo's supposed lost life, things continued to chug along. It was decided that to keep the Keroro Platoon happy so that they wouldn't feel like they were all being sent out to die (like Dororo), they were given larger rooms. Better rooms. Rooms that were not in fact inside a spaceship but instead in a base.

The base was large enough that if they weren't sent outside they didn't need to leave. It was largely unmanned due to the numerous number of keronians being sent off to battle, but it was still built like a fortress and plenty defended.

Keroro's room was the farthest away from his platoon mates, the largest and the best defended. There was this large feeling of suspicion that it wasn't just supposed to be defended from the Vipers but other keronians as well.

This probably made sense. Keroro was pretty sure Agugu, the Colonel and the Demon Sergeant weren't the only keronians who knew about the Keroro project. Since he was brought in to stop the war not just for altruistic purposes but for the ambitious purpose of sky-rocketing Agugu's popularity so he could become emperor, there was probably the fear that Keroro would be stolen by other keronians who were thinking the same thing.

He truly wasn't seen as alive. Just a tool.

* * *

Agugu monitored security camera footage. It was of the utmost importance that the Keroro Platoon remained in the base and not contact family members to alert them of their location.

 _Not like ex-sergeant Major Kululu or ex-second class Private Tamama have any family members to contact or ones that care about them though._ He reminded himself. Really Giroro was the only concern, but from the psychological examinations of Giroro that he had read it seemed likely that Giroro understood that there was no reason to call his family or boast to them about being included in a keronian war.

Sure, Giroro was mostly there to make his family proud, he was mostly staying out of the desire to be useful and out of pride, but he wasn't the type to wave it around.

Agugu pulled up the camera to make sure Keroro wasn't doing anything dangerous. Keroro was just doing the usual of staring at some broken pekoponian phone as if he was waiting for a message from Pekopon.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" The Demon Sergeant asked behind him. " _The plan_ , I mean."

Agugu chuckled briefly, "Are you getting soft for your 'son?'" The word son had a bitter hiss to it, as if he was slapping the demon sergeant with the word.

Keroro was in no way the Demon Sergeant's son. They both knew it. And better than anyone the Demon Sergeant knew what Keroro had taken from him, his sense of compassion or any empathy for his fake child.

"No." The Demon Sergeant shook his head firmly. "Don't worry. He's no son of mine." He looked distant for a moment as if for a second he was truly grieving his and Keroro's relationship. "He's a god. And he's meant to do greater things than to be a son."

Agugu turned around. There- that was the answer. It should be the end of the conversation.

"However….What I am worried for is you." The Demon Sergeant spoke again. "You're young. You're everything I should be looking out for." He frowned as if trying to figure out how to phrase things. "Are you sure you want to go through with this _**nightmare**_?" The word nightmare was uttered with true fear.

Agugu smiled and sat down. "Keronians….Keronians have always been known throughout time to upset the natural order. We're all prepared to go through nightmares. It's in our heritage." He stretched.

"We've always been known to upset the natural order...But sometimes when we try to progress higher we manage to wreck things for ourselves more than when we started. The process of making Keroro...It took up good soldier's lives. Throughout generations there have been bad eggs, conquers and truly cruel Keroro's that we could not stop because we were too afraid. They set our progress back." The Demon Sergeant stiffened up. "We're seeing the consequences of trying to progress again with the flyians. It's a lesson...When the small number of flyians were brought back we hadn't grown up eating them...So many young keronians ate the flyians and died grotesquely. They would first start to display symptoms of sickness. Then they would dissolve slowly as if melting from acid. Then they would reform as monsters that needed to be gunned down. You...You could still hear their screams the entire time." The Demon Sergeant was swaying a little. "I truly grieve for those lost young'ins. So...So many keronians died that we hadn't accounted for or predicted. And it was our fault."

"They just weren't meant to eat paradise's fruit." Agugu shrugged, acting oddly cold towards the subject. "The few who did get power from the flyians far outweighed the numerous deaths."

The Demon Sergeant kept his mouth closed.

"I...I ate a small dosage of one. It's how I've come so far and turned into the keronian I am today." Agugu reminded. "I was smarter than those other young keronians. I didn't eat a whole one in one dose. I only ate a single wing. So I survived when they didn't because I was smarter."

"Did you get what you wanted from that wing? Was it worth it to eat so little?" The Demon Sergeant asked.

Agugu grinned. "I saw things. I saw the future as it could be. No….How it should be. I saw a vision of myself in charge of Keron. And I gained the knowledge and secrets behind the power to take it." He nodded. "What the flyians truly gave me wasn't mythical strength, it was just a revelation at my own inner strength and the tools of knowledge to help me along my way. They gave me a taste for ambition."

The Demon Sergeant didn't have anything to say to that. He just nodded.

* * *

Keroro sat in his room unsure of what to do exactly. His platoon was still avoiding him, although sometimes Tamama and Kululu would forget that he was around and would get lost in themselves bad mouthing Dororo when they noticed Keroro in the room they booked it, but lately it was taking them a little longer to realize that.

Giroro however, wasn't avoiding him. He wasn't afraid to shy away from his direct anger. It was very clear that he still felt betrayed and lied to and he wouldn't let Keroro ever forget it.

Keroro tried to keep Giroro out of his thoughts. Instead he looked at his broken phone.

 _I want to talk to Fuyuki…_ It was true that he had asked Dororo to pass on a message to him, but he felt the need to tell him himself that he wasn't coming back to Pekopon.

He needed to tell Fuyuki what was up with his keronian organs. That he hadn't meant to, but he was glad that Fuyuki was at least alive.

He knew Fuyuki wasn't contacting him. He wasn't sure how to contact Fuyuki now that he had stupidly thrown his phone against a wall in a fit of anger.

 _I...I just want him to know that I didn't mean to lie to him. That I still care for him and that he'll always be my friend._ Keroro thought to himself.

But he didn't have a communication device. He didn't have any secure way to contact Fuyuki.

 _But I do!_ Keroro suddenly realized. Or at least he knew someone who probably had a way to video chat with him.

Giroro. Giroro probably had a way to contact Fuyuki. _Kululu and Mois might have better technology and tech than him but they don't have that connection to Fuyuki that he does._ He was sure that Giroro could get into contact with Fuyuki if he wished it.

After all Giroro was dating Fuyuki's sister and he seriously doubted that Giroro had gone without contact with Natsumi. Giroro would have been screaming a lot more if that was the case. And Keroro was pretty faithful in Natsumi that she would have somehow caught up to them in space to ask Giroro why he had just left out of nowhere. He wasn't sure how she would get to space but because she wasn't there yet it was a certainty that Giroro had contact with the Hinata family on a regular basis.

 _His lovesickness is strong. Giroro would take down this entire base if they weren't letting him talk to Natsumi._ Keroro knew this to be true.

 _I just need to somehow convince him to help me get in contact with Natsumi and Fuyuki!_ Keroro thought cheerfully. He gulped. That was easier said than done. After all Giroro was incredibly mad at him and seemed to hate him at the moment.

It made Keroro nervous because he knew Giroro would reject him. But he needed to say his good-byes to Natsumi and Fuyuki and only Giroro could help him do that.

 _He...He has to understand….Right? He might hate the current version of me but Natsumi deserves to hear the truth about me and that I can't come home. Fuyuki deserves the same. Giroro values the truth. If it's for Natsumi and Fuyuki's sake he'll put aside his grudge for a moment, right?_ Keroro thought.

He wasn't too sure.

* * *

"G-giroro..." Keroro was hesitant as he approached Giroro.

Giroro glared at him holding a mug of what Keroro could only assume was black coffee. He didn't look that interested in talking to him. "What?" He snapped. "I'm not interested in whatever stupid thing you want me to do. You're not the Keroro I thought you were."

Keroro grimaced. "I...I was wondering if you could put aside your betrayal towards me for a second to help me contact Natsumi and Fuyuki. I know that Natsumi can probably get her brother to talk to me..." He looked at his feet, not wanting to meet Giroro's eye and the burning hatred. "I want to tell them what's going on. And...Apologize to Fuyuki for everything."

Giroro hissed for a second at the request. He put down his mug and crossed his arms. "So you want to use me to somehow get into contact for the Hinata's for you?"

"Y-yeah. I mean...Can't you understand that I should at least talk to them? I was never a clone to-" Keroro was cut off by Giroro slamming him against a wall so that he couldn't get away.

Giroro's face was fuming. Clearly angry for a multitude of reasons- that Keroro had been a clone for him and that he was being used yet again as just someone to help Natsumi or for his connection to Natsumi. There were other reasons he seemed furious though. "Were you lying to them too? Were you lying to Fuyuki and Natsumi as well? Were you just a heartless artificial person to them? Or did you really care for them?" Giroro asked.

"Huh?"

"Because if you use me to contact them and hurt them...I don't care if you are a god….I will kill you." Giroro threatened. Those Hinata siblings were precious to him. He would protect them.

"I wouldn't hurt them!...Intentionally!" Keroro wasn't quite sure if they'd hate him if he was a clone.

"If...If Natsumi gets hurt by the fact that you're a god...A heartless artificial clone..." Giroro could not fathom that Keroro was anything more than a clone. He couldn't finish his statement, but he just sighed. "She fought with you all the time, Keroro. She acted like she hated you. But in reality she really cared about you. What if she experiences and feels the same thing I'm feeling? I couldn't bare to see her get that hurt by someone she started trusting..." His fingers dug into Keroro's arm, gripping tighter.

Keroro didn't fight about Giroro's fury. He didn't feel like he deserved to resist. _I betrayed him. I hurt him._ Giroro was clearly caring anger, but more than anything he looked sad. He didn't know how to deal with the process of betrayal.

"Where's my friend?" Giroro finally asked desperately, there seemed to be a clinging denial to his voice like he wanted Keroro to tell him it was some joke. "Where is he, Keroro?"

Keroro to his surprise heard Giroro let out a strained sob.

"Where's the Keroro I spent so many childhood memories with?" He asked again desperately, "Who was always by my side, even when we fought? We were always making memories…." He slung his head as if he was giving up.

"Where's the Keroro who teased me? Where's the friend who I was practically raised with? Where's MY Keroro?" He was beginning to loosen up his grip.

He released his hands off Keroro. Keroro brought his hand hesitantly up to Giroro's hat as if about to pat it. _I'm right here._ He wanted to say. But he wasn't. He had never been that Keroro.

"...Can...Can you help me contact Natsumi and Fuyuki?" Keroro asked.

Giroro brushed him off like he hadn't heard him. This wasn't about Natsumi anymore. He was still focused on his own betrayal towards Keroro. "Our families were so close, Keroro...Your father and my father had been in the same platoon all their lives. They were best friends. Their parents were probably the same way."

 _He...He isn't my father though..._ Keroro was beginning to realize that. It hurt to think about.

"My father was at your father's beck and call. He would have protected him with his life. That was supposed to be the same with us. That was our destiny. We were supposed to be best childhood friends in a long line of a generation of childhood friends." Giroro reminded.

 _Oh...Oh yeah..._ Keroro suddenly realized. _Giroro...Giroro would be taking this the hardest out of anyone. He feels like his world's most shaken up. After all it was pretty much like we were raised together._ Giroro probably couldn't comprehend the reality that they had been placed in.

Not only that but if Giroro's father was as good of a friend to Keroro's father as he was describing, the guy probably already knew about Keroro. Giroro probably felt just as lied to by his parents as Keroro did. Because his father had known that his son was making friends with someone destined to die repeatedly, being replaced over and over again.

He probably knew that Giroro and Keroro's friendship was completely doomed from the beginning. _No wonder he was so excited by our friendship with Zeroro. He probably thought Giroro was making a real genuine friend. Because he couldn't tell his son about me he wished for Giroro to make healthy relationships._

Giroro just waited for Keroro to answer him, to reassure his worries, to say just joking, but none of that ever came. So he just slunk to the ground and continued talking.

"Heck! I...I remember Garuru telling me a story about visiting your mother at the hospital with a baby Keroro! Even...Even that was a lie? That couldn't have been, right? People...People don't clone babies and grow them. There had to be a real Keroro at one point, right? My friend?"

Keroro shook his head. "That baby was probably a clone."

Giroro shivered. "My first memories are of you, me and Garuru playing. T-that...That's all a lie?"

 _How hard do you think this is on me? All of my memories are lies, Giroro. At least you have other friends who were real people. Those other friends in my life? They were in some other guy's life, not mine._ Keroro thought to himself, but did not point out.

"We were neighbors all my life, Keroro..." Giroro just continued talking desperately. "What happened to the Keroro in my life? That one who was my friend? Is...Is he still out there somewhere? In you? Where is he? What happened to him?"

Keroro frowned. He didn't want to tell Giroro this, but he was trying something new by telling the truth. He bent down to Giroro and put a hand on his. "That...That Keroro..." He gulped. "Probably died."

He could see the grief instantly on Giroro's face.

"I don't know how many times. It's likely you knew multiple Keroro's over your lifetime. Probably as many as the Demon Sergeant did. But...They all died and got replaced by the next one in that line." Keroro told him, "I'm the current one in that line. The Pekopon one."

"You...You don't know how many? I….I didn't realize Keroro was dying all this time? That...That my friend wasn't my friend anymore and just an impostor?" Giroro asked.

Keroro gave a slow and sad nod. "I don't know how many times your friend got replaced. Tens of thousands from what I heard."

Giroro completely dropped to the ground.

Keroro waited for a few seconds to pass by hoping that Giroro would recollect himself. He had to act calm. _I can't let Giroro's rejection of me disappoint me._ It was likely he wasn't getting Giroro or Tamama back. He just had to move on and say his good-byes.

"So can you set up a video call with Natsumi for me? You never answered my request?" Keroro asked.

Giroro harshly looked up at him. "Was it always only the pekoponians who mattered to you?" He asked.

 _Kind of hypocritical for you to ask me that when you ruined our invasion so many times over one pekoponian._ Keroro bit back a snarky response.

"Of course it was. I just never noticed. All you cared about was Fuyuki and your stupid gundam models. You never felt any special connection to your old life or the 'Keroro of back then'. It's because to you they never existed." Giroro glared. "Pururu, Zeroro and I….You rarely treated us like your childhood friends. Now I know why. Because we never were that to you. You lacked that special connection to us. We were false friends to you."

"You...You weren't false friends...You acted different when we came to Pekopon too! You didn't treat me like a childhood friend." Keroro tried to remind, "All you paid attention to was Natsumi." He didn't want to be the only one on trial here.

Giroro ignored him and didn't listen. His Natsumi mistakes were a thing of the past. "I was your friend and I treated you as such." He insisted and frowned. He looked as if he was trying to remember an instance of proof of this.

He finally nodded. "Do you remember that one camping trip that you, Zeroro and I took?" Giroro asked. Obviously rhetorical. He didn't really expect Keroro to remember specifics. "We played a truth or dare game under Zeroro's suggestion that it would help us be more honest with each other. You acted quite weird in that game. Not like yourself. You were asked at one point who you had a crush on and you happily declared Pururu to my intense surprise."

Keroro frowned. _I...I do actually remember that...What's he trying to get at?_ He didn't particularly like this story. It was embarrassing.

"I also liked Pururu at that time, but as soon as I heard you liked her too I gave up on her because I was your friend. I wanted to root for you. I wanted you to be happy with her." Giroro told him.

 _Ah, so the point is about how he was my friend. And he did try to do nice things for me._ Keroro realized. He was beginning to feel a little sad. "I...I'm sure even the other Keroro didn't want you to give up on Pururu for his sake." Keroro told him, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Probably for the best. She wasn't my type of girl anyway. And it would have been really complicated if I had continued going after her and we would have started dating and then when I came down to Pekopon and met Natsumi I would have been miserable because I would have fallen in love with her for real and just realized that whatever I felt for Pururu wasn't ever particularly strong or real." Giroro shrugged. "But that's beyond the point, you're distracting me!"

"What's the point then?" Keroro asked. He thought he had understood the point of the story. It was about the sacrifices towards their friendship that Giroro had made for them.

"After...After that you never made a move on Pururu despite the fact that I was rooting for you. It...It was almost like you didn't like her at all. I...I always thought you were just shy, but..." Giroro gulped. "Did...Did the previous Keroro die after that truth or dare game and a new Keroro replace him? And that Keroro didn't feel the same attachments as the other Keroro?"

 _Ah...I understand._ Keroro was finally understanding. Giroro thought all of his emotions were fake. Not real. That his attachments could change from being cloned as well. He had seen different Keroro's throughout time treat people differently to moderately different to severe. He probably thought Keroro felt different about everything than the other Keroro's.

He could understand how Giroro could feel this way. After all if a clone's crush could just completely vanish and not remain in the next life, couldn't friendships do the same? Didn't that mean that all of Keroro's clones emotions were just a mixture of chemicals and that they couldn't carry through through memories?

"Did my friend's feelings towards our group change from dying? Did simple things like love just vanish?" Giroro asked again.

Keroro blushed briefly. He didn't know how to answer Giroro's question. _I want it to be an easy answer, like 'I don't know' or 'this is getting too deep into clone philosophy for me' but…._ He unfortunately knew the answer to Giroro's question.

Because he remembered everything about that truth or dare game, his feelings on Pururu and why they had mysteriously 'disappeared' the next day.

 _Stop being nervous!_ Keroro told himself. _You've got way too many other existential problems to be focusing on, like the fact that you're a clone, all your friends hate you, you've been lied all your life, you don't have parents, and you're supposedly a god._ He was still feeling his heart beat faster.

 _Don't focus on the fact that you completely lied and were hoping that nobody would ever call you on it._ Keroro thought to himself.

He remembered that oddly enough he- or that clone at least, had gotten embarrassed by the question. He had played off his embarrassment as saying he liked everyone, but then Zeroro had specified that he was asking about a romantic crush.

" _Like the ones your mom and dad have towards each other. Love!"_ Zeroro had said.

" _Yeah. Like towards a girl."_ Giroro had explained a bit better.

Keroro really didn't want to focus on why his clone, or even him had panicked so much. But he didn't, nor had he ever really felt anything like that towards any girls. So he had named the first girl that had flown into his mind- Pururu. And then he had just kind of had to play along with the crush he had been shackled with.

He had kind of forgotten at times that he had even said anything. But it was probably obvious to outsiders that he never felt anything for Pururu. Giroro had caught on to it.

 _So...He thinks I don't feel attachments because of a lie one of my clones said years ago that he remembers?_ Keroro just frowned. _Man am I paying for my mistakes and embarrassment._ He sure did feel awkward.

"Umm...Well, uhhh you see, Giroro..." Keroro tried to explain, "I think I remember well enough what my clone was thinking and well he just kind of said the first girl that came to mind because he didn't really understand the game!" Keroro tried to sooth Giroro's worries.

Giroro's despair was replaced by instant skepticism thanks to Keroro's bad lies. "If he didn't have a crush he could have said that…?" He didn't look like he believed Keroro.

"Well, ummm...You see you specified that he had to name a girl so he just said Pururu!" Keroro's face turned a bit more pink.

It wasn't exactly true either that he had never ever felt romantic feelings. He was trying not to focus on the memory of sheer panic when the specification of 'girl' had come up. And Pururu was about as stereotypical female as they came.

He just sweated awkwardly hoping Giroro would believe him and go back to the subject of his friend dying. Right now his mind kept swirling and remembering in way too much detail that one moment Tamama had kissed him.

And he really didn't need that to be in his head right now.

 _Don't need to think about other clone Keroro's and how I know that at least one probably had a crush on Tamama and how multiple others of them liked guys._ Yet again he really didn't have the time right now to be focusing on his gay feelings. Separating himself and thinking about how they were just 'other' him's was kind of helping but it was becoming increasingly hard to deny that he had never had any thoughts like that. Not only that but he was beginning to realize that his increasing desperation to get Tamama's attention wasn't just because he liked the friendship that they had.

But he really didn't want to think about that, wonder about it or sort it out. Figuring out his sexuality and dealing with all that mess of issues seemed way harder than facing anything about a multitude of clones.

Keroro had very unrealistic extremes.

"Are you just trying to come up with answers to explain your actions?" Giroro frowned. "Because you don't want me to think that a Keroro's attachments can change from life to life?" His glare deepened. "I know you gave up on Pururu. I know you didn't care that she and Garuru are together now. You didn't feel any of your previous feelings. They no longer remain because that Keroro and his emotions are dead."

"That's not true! A Keroro's emotions don't die-" Keroro frowned. He was pretty sure that was the case at least. _The other Keroro that rescued Tamama...His emotions remain strong after all. That I don't ever remember or see what happened when he saved Tamama. It's for him and Tamama alone._

Giroro waited for more of an explanation.

"And I just thought Pururu looked a lot happier with Garuru. I wanted her to be happy to." Keroro replied. He smiled to himself. _That's true. I mean I'm not completely lying. I didn't like her but I'm happy she's happy._

Giroro looked at Keroro for a moment, hearing Keroro act nice seemed to make him feel some guilt for how he had been acting. He didn't look like he was beginning to forgive Keroro or relent though. "Fine." He turned away. "I'll...I'll set up a video call for you. I mean I'm still hurt that you are in fact not my friend, but...You can feel things for people. Happiness for them when they're happy. And that's enough for Fuyuki and Natsumi. They...They might have a different feelings on the matter since they never met a clone of you." Giroro nodded.

Keroro smiled. It was the first time he truly felt hope in a while. "Thanks, Giroro!"

"Don't get me wrong. I still hate you. You're not my friend. And that's why I won't appear in the call with you. I'll set it up but meet with Natsumi and Fuyuki yourself." Giroro said harshly.

Keroro nodded. That was all he could really ask for. He couldn't pressure anything more.

* * *

Keroro went to Giroro's room. Giroro set up the video call on a giant screen, he then left the room as it started calling up Natsumi Hinata.

Despite the fact that Giroro had said he wouldn't be there he remained secretly peering into the room outside the door. He wanted to hear what Natsumi would say after all. Would she feel differently than him? Or would she feel just as betrayed?

He needed to know if he was doing the right thing, or if she had a different insight on the matter. And he didn't feel right gossiping to Natsumi about Keroro's issues and telling her the full story without Keroro being there.

The screen turned on and Natsumi's face was instantly on it, looking at the computer screen.

"Hello, Lady N-natsumi." Keroro tried to greet. _What should I say? I'm a clone? I've been a clone this entire time?_ "Umm...So what...What would you say if I wasn't me?"

Natsumi looked at him confused. "Stupid frog? What are you doing on the screen? That's Giroro's line!"

"Yeah, Giroro set things up-" Keroro tried to explain.

"Well where is he? I want to talk to him not you." Natsumi didn't mean anything mean by it but Keroro still felt slapped by the words.

 _Of course she wants to talk to Giroro. They're dating. She didn't mean anything by it._ Keroro tried to reassure. Still he was beginning to feel so used to people rejecting him that he was instantly jumping to bad conclusions.

"He's giving me some time alone with you-" Keroro tried to explain.

"But I want to talk to Giroro!" Natsumi insisted. She was sorting through a box. "I know he said he wasn't kidnapped and he's just doing his duty and helping Keron, but they must be pressuring him somehow to stay and fight a war that he has nothing to do with."

Keroro frowned. _Are they? Is Giroro in danger?_ Had Giroro been not telling him something? He knew Dororo had said something like that the colonel had told him to stay because his mother was in danger on the planet. Was it the same with Garuru and Giroro's father?

"I mean...Giroro couldn't seriously be stupid enough to go back to the people who betrayed him just for honor right?" Natsumi asked.

In the background Giroro cried. He was that stupid. That was exactly what had happened.

"I'm trying to figure out a way to go up to space to drag him back. I don't think he's telling me the full truth." Natsumi revealed. "I already tracked down my super powered suit. Stupid Giroro voice box says that it's dangerous to just fly straight up into space though. Darn you, Giroro."

Keroro frowned. "Uhhh...I'll try to let him talk to you afterwards." Giroro clearly had some things to sort out with his girlfriend. And if he wasn't being pressured when he got back to Pekopon Natsumi was going to be very mad.

Keroro knew she was probably only mad because she was worried for Giroro and cared for him, but he still did not envy being in Giroro's position right now.

Neither did Giroro it seemed because immediately Giroro ran into the room revealing that he had been listening. "I'm not being kept against my will, Natsumi! I told you some trouble with the Vipers came up. There's a war going on and they really need my help—Please don't put yourself in danger for my sake." He begged.

"And so you're helping the government that cast you aside and called you a failure? You don't have to do that, Giroro!" Natsumi insisted.

"Being a warrior and keronian soldier isn't always about conquering. It's about protecting others too. I don't want people to die. My brother and father are here, Natsumi. If you were in my position I know you would do the same. If there was a war on Pekopon you'd do anything to help your brother and Mom."

Natsumi frowned. "Yeah. I would." She agreed. "But I wouldn't go all macho solo on a war! I would let you help if you offered it. Let me help you if the situation is really that serious." She begged. "Stop being so stupid."

"But...But I don't want you to get hurt, Natsumi. I love you so much...It's my own fault I'm in this situation-" Giroro's voice sounded guilty. As if he knew there was truly no reason for him to be here and he was only truly helping by getting Keroro to stay.

"You're not at fault. Don't let them make you think you are! Stop being an idiot and let me help." Natsumi begged again.

Keroro sighed as Giroro and Natsumi argued. "Ummm...Could you maybe continue this another time?" He asked. He kinda wanted to get this back on track. "I really need to talk to Fuyuki and I wanted Natsumi to maybe drag him into this call and bring him over. I need to talk to him about a few things."

Natsumi glanced at Keroro. "Like about what he felt you were keeping secret from him?" She suddenly realized how serious the situation was. She nodded. "Fine. But Giroro's in the doghouse for not letting me help. You're in trouble, Mister."

Giroro looked so bummed out. His mouth just hung open but he nodded. He slowly walked out of the room to continue listening in secret.

"So...You wanted to talk to Fuyuki, stupid frog?" Natsumi asked. "Must really be important if you asked Giroro to contact him."

Keroro nodded. He looked at his hands. "The...The truth is...I probably won't be coming back to Pekopon." He admitted.

Natsumi looked startled for a moment, and then sad. "W-what? Why?" Natsumi asked. "Oh...Oh no...I knew that war was more serious than Giroro was letting on. Are you going to die?" She instantly jumped to the worst conclusion.

Keroro didn't shake his head. He didn't know. "Keron probably won't let me come back to Pekopon. They...They need me now. I've apparently unlocked my potential."

Natsumi looked confused. "What do you mean?"

Keroro took a deep breath. "It turns out when I unleashed that power to save Fuyuki and catch the flyians it wasn't just some miracle of the Keron Star. It...It turns out that I'm apparently the...God of Keron?" He was still pretty confused about that.

Natsumi just stared blankly. "Oh god. It's just like in Fuyuki's bad alien crack pot blog. He was telling me that there was a reason that you looked exactly like the planet and had the most generic name in existence for your people. Is his weird theory about cloning true too? Alien reproduction isn't like...The most messed up thing ever, right? There's no tentacles involved in people's brains, right?" Natsumi asked desperately. "Because if there is I don't know what to do. What if Giroro's like...Licking his lips thinking about how juicy my brain will be someday? Yuck, and you know I thought for a moment he really was interested in normal pekoponian bodies I mean he seems to like making out like a normal person perhaps he even seems a little TOO into it."

"AHHH! Don't want to hear about this. I don't want to hear about you and Giroro making out!" Keroro waved his arms desperately. "But no, keronians reproduce just like you do. There's nothing to worry about. We do in fact bang. You...You should already know this, Natsumi. Don't you know this from Kululu and Angol Mois?" Kululu was getting a little too boastful for his liking lately.

He wasn't quite sure if Mois knew.

Natsumi looked confused. "Wait….What?" She looked like she was turning a little green. "The poor girl."

Keroro agreed.

 _How did this call turn into a keronian sex ed talk?_ Keroro wondered. He briefly thought about how Fuyuki had apparently already theorized his origin. That might make things easier. "The...The cloning thing isn't exactly wrong though. Well at least in my circumstance."

Natsumi frowned. "I know. We've fought some of your clones on numerous occasions." She reminded.

"It...It turns out I'm not just a God. I'm a clone too of the original God who died. They've been trying to produce a Keroro for years but the clone's cells keep tearing apart causing clones to die. So they replace them with a new Keroro. I'm….I'm a clone. I was created for the Pekopon Invasion. My past...Doesn't exist. It's just a lie in my memory." Keroro explained.

He waited for Natsumi to yell at him. To tell him she thinks differently of him and he's not the Keroro she knew. To say anything about how Keroro lied to her. But instead she just looked surprised for a moment just being silent.

Eventually she spoke, her surprise replaced by a new emotion- she looked guilty. "I'm...I'm sorry."

"For what? You didn't do anything." Keroro reminded.

"I treated you like crap. I scolded you all the time for not acting mature. Sometimes I would even beat you up. If...If what you're saying is true..." Natsumi hugged herself. "You were basically a child when I met you. Fuyuki and I were the first pekoponians you met. We shaped who you are today. I'm basically like your parent! And I mistreated you! You were a baby!"

"Umm..I don't think I was really a baby I mean I had fake memories-" Keroro tried to explain. It made him feel kind of weird every time someone called him a baby. That and some of the other Keroro's had been more mature than him and they had been far younger.

Natsumi still seemed to think he was a baby in experiences and morals though.

 _Maybe it's best she puts her own spin onto the whole clone thing though. It broadens what I think of it hearing many different opinions. And I didn't expect her to react this way._ Keroro told himself. "So...Do you hate me for lying to you? For being a fake person?"

"You're not a fake person." Natsumi insisted. "You're the stupid frog. I never knew any of the other Keroro's. I only knew you. But I know one thing," She smiled after a moment. "All stupid frogs are stupid frogs. I'm sure that's the same throughout every life."

Although the nickname had usually been used as an insult for once Keroro felt power from it. It was something that made him whole- connected to all the previous Keroro's and himself. Each Keroro if they had met Natsumi would have been called stupid frog's by her. It was just the nature of Natsumi.

He was the same as always and always would be to Natsumi. He smiled brightly and felt himself crying.

"Will...Will Fuyuki feel the same?"

"Of course he will. All he wants is the truth. He'll still be your friend." Natsumi insisted. "And if he isn't I'll knock some sense into him."

Keroro smiled as she rushed off to get Fuyuki.

Giroro frowned as he listened to Natsumi. _She does think differently._ But all of her points made perfect sense. She wasn't blinded by grief and petty betrayal.

He thought about her points. _She's right. Keroro still has some of his traits that he had as a kid. He's not a complete stranger._ His friend had always been a bit of an idiot, but he had been fun on the flip-side to that. Keroro was also fun and an idiot. Giroro's friend cared about his friends. Keroro cared about his friends.

Keroro was a good person and always would be. Did that mean he wasn't a stranger and was still Giroro's friend? "All stupid frogs are stupid frogs." He repeated. That was something so Natsumi.

 _Heh. My girlfriend's smarter than me. Maybe she is right._ Should he try to forgive Keroro?

He didn't know.

* * *

It took a bit but Natsumi eventually dragged Fuyuki in front of the computer. It just took a while to locate him.

Keroro and Fuyuki stared at each other for a long time quietly.

"Sarge..." Fuyuki finally said.

"I'm...I'm sorry...For not telling you about what I did to your body and how I did it. I didn't mean to lie to you, at the time I didn't think I was lying. I myself didn't know who I was or what was going on. But...You were observant enough to know that there was something I wasn't seeing." Keroro explained.

Fuyuki instantly looked confused. "What are you talking about? You mean, you didn't really know or understand about what you had done?" He looked like he felt a little guilty. That was obviously a possibility but he hadn't treated Keroro like that was the case.

"You see I'm like some sort of supernatural creature or something. Keron says I'm their God. The grief of your death unlocked my powers and I brought you back to life. I guess since I was a keronian god though I could only really replace your organs with keronian organs." Keroro looked nervous. That was a big mistake. What good was god powers if all he could help was one specific species? "I…I didn't know because I wasn't the original God. The original died. I'm the clone. It turns out I've been a clone all this time. The Keroro you know is the one of Pekopon." Keroro didn't like saying things so matter-of-factly but he felt used to it now.

Fuyuki shook his head. "None of that matters to me! All I wanted was the truth and you've given it." He insisted. "You're my best friend, sarge. I'm sorry you've faced such intense hardships because of me. Now come home please!"

Keroro slowly shook his head. "I'm...I'm sorry. I'll always be your friend but I can't return. Keron needs me now and I doubt they'd let me go on my way. I'm supposed to be here for Keron." Keroro apologized. "So I've got to stay. I made this place after all."

Fuyuki shook his head over and over again and sobbed. "I forgive you!" He put his hand on the screen as if desperate to pull Keroro into his arms, "I don't want you to leave forever. I want to see you again. I want you to come on home. To Earth. To where you belong. With me! We're best friends."

Keroro smiled softly. He wished he could have wiped away Fuyuki's tears. "You'll always be my best friend. But I'm meant to stay on Keron. I can't just abandon what I've created. It...It was always our destiny as boy and alien to separate. You and I just didn't want to face that. Your alien adventure was just a memory of what will be your adolescence."

Fuyuki sobbed harder. "If...If you won't come back...Let me come to Keron!" He decided. "I'm part Keronian now anyway. I could make a life there. I could be by your side every step of the way on some ascension to godhood! I don't want to leave you on your own!" Fuyuki insisted.

Keroro smiled. Fuyuki was so very himself. He always cared about his friends more than anything and had his kindness. He would sacrifice himself for his friends.

 _I'm so glad that I could make up with Fuyuki. Even if this is our last meeting._ Keroro thought.

"You can't come to Keron." Keroro told him, trying not to sound harsh. "There are things on Pekopon that you have to stay for." He paused. "You were always meant to stay on Pekopon, Fuyuki. You're a pekoponian boy. You're helping Pekopon out by negotiating with aliens for them. If you left many people would be hurt." He pointed to himself. "You are Pekopon's. I however was always meant to be Keron's. I'm sorry that it can't be different but this is the way our fates are."

"I want to change that though! Let's throw out fate! Where we're meant to be! We decide our own path!" Fuyuki insisted.

Keroro really wanted to do that. "Fuyuki...You have a family. You can't leave them. What about the father you wanted so much to be present in your life? What about your sister who you've lived separately from for so long? What about your mother and your grandma?" Keroro paused seeing that Fuyuki was still looking like he was going to complain. "What about Momoka?"

Fuyuki quieted down. It looked as if he was trying to figure out an answer. He didn't want to throw away Momoka's friendship. But in those precious seconds he couldn't figure out how to keep both Momoka and Keroro in his life. "Momoka...Momoka would u-understand...S-she'd...She'd figure out someway to transport herself to Keron too." Fuyuki said in an almost delusioned way. "She always figures out a way to be there."

Keroro sighed. That was true but going across the universe was a bit too far. "That's not very fair to Momoka now is it?" He scolded.

 _Fuyuki, I appreciate that you care about me but that idea is just dumb._ Keroro almost felt like laughing. "She's important to you, right? You'd be just as sad if you left Pekopon to be with me and she was out of your life as much as you feel now." Keroro told him.

Fuyuki frowned. "But...You need me more than Momoka-" He started to say another stupid thing.

Keroro sighed again. "Now that's just dumb, Fuyuki. That girl's been in love with you for years-"

"SHE WHAT?" Fuyuki yelled.

Keroro stared at him. "You didn't know?" How dense could Fuyuki be? Although...That was rather hypocritical of him seeing as how he hadn't seen that Tamama liked him.

Fuyuki just nodded. "I...I had no idea...Is that true?" He asked.

Keroro nodded. "Everybody knows. My platoon even exploited it a number of times for financial purposes."

Fuyuki just crossed his arms. "That's no good."

"I'm sorry, okay? But I owe her this much to tell you that you should not leave her for me and you should go to Momoka and hurry up and return her feelings." Keroro nodded. "So..Please, let us part ways on good terms."

Fuyuki instantly started frowning again despite his confusion, and soon enough at the reminder that Keroro was going away, he was back to tears. He just cried. "I...I can't even hug you one last time."

"I'm sorry. I'll miss you. You'll always be my best friend." Keroro put his hand on the screen. Fuyuki tried to just sniffle and do the same. "Good-bye, Fuyuki Hinata. Please...Live long and have a good life."  
"I'll find some way to reach you again. In the stars." Fuyuki tried to promise but he didn't know if that was true. "I'll miss you."

And soon enough after they had said their good-byes Keroro switched off.

Giroro watched the sad exchange. He watched the entire thing. Despite Keroro's promise Fuyuki had cried, but for a different reason than feeling betrayed.

 _I'll return, Fuyuki._ Giroro vowed. _I'll be there for you._ He had no plans to permanently be on Keron. He glanced at Keroro who still seemed frozen in place. _And I'll bring Keroro back too. For you, Fuyuki._

Maybe he could forgive Keroro for Fuyuki and Natsumi. He had been Keroro's protector as a kid. Perhaps he could be his protector now and drag him away from Keron for the Hinata's sake. _He's an idiot. He won't be able to get away on his own._

"Keroro." Giroro walked up to him. "I'll bring you home." He vowed.

Keroro looked a bit surprised to see that Giroro looked like he wanted to help him.

"I might have been mad but I don't want to see you used as a weapon or a tool. And Fuyuki and Natsumi will probably be sad if you don't return." Giroro insisted. He out-stretched his hand as if waiting for Keroro to take it. "So I'll figure out a way to get you out of this and bring you home."

Keroro looked at Giroro's hand. _Is he forgiving me?_ The hand reminded him briefly of Dororo's. Dororo had also asked him to return with him and run away with him.

Giroro and Dororo really had a few major similarities. No wonder they had become friends.

"Thanks." Keroro smiled, "But...I don't think I can take you up on that offer. I feel it more and more every day. That Keron's pulling me to it and that I'm meant to stay here. I'm it's god after all. So I suppose it makes a little bit of sense."

Giroro shook his head. "You're not Keron's God yet. You're only displaying the powers. I'll fight it. I'll stop it!" Giroro declared.

"You'll...Try to stop it from happening?" Keroro couldn't understand. Giroro had rejected him so strongly before. Why was he trying to protect him?

"Yeah, after all Keron would be doomed if you ascended to God hood." Giroro teased. "I don't hate this place. So I'd hate to see that happen."

Keroro laughed.

* * *

Giroro didn't know how he'd stop Keroro from becoming a God and bring him back to Pekopon for Fuyuki and Natsumi. He was none too smart too so he couldn't really intricately plan ideas.

 _Wait...If Keroro is just a clone of the Original God, doesn't that mean he's not really the God?_ Giroro thought to himself.

 _That means any Keroro clone will do!_ He smiled to himself. _All I have to do then is get another Keroro clone created to replace the current Keroro. That Keroro can become a god._ That might have been thinking of the issue in the same way that the Keron government had, that Keroro's were basically replaceable, but that didn't matter to Giroro.

All he knew was that this current Keroro was important to Natsumi and Fuyuki. No other would do. And he didn't want them to go through what he had and lose a friend. This was Pekopon's Keroro. He shouldn't be on Keron.

Giroro only knew one person who probably had the equipment and supplies to clone Keroro. Giroro was absolutely certain that Kululu was smart enough to do just as the scientists of Keron had and make another clone.

So Giroro headed off to the recreation room- a room that was supposed to lessen stress for Giroro, Kululu and Tamama after their friend Dororo had died. Giroro had immediately put a sign on the door that said 'no Keroro's allowed' so it was actually more like the Keroro free zone.

He knew Tamama and Kululu would probably be there. So he opened the door and walked in.

Just as predicted, Tamama and Kululu were there. Tamama was aggressively playing pinball on a pinball machine and Kululu was typing on his computer.

 _No Angol Mois in sight._ Giroro noted. He hadn't seen her around much. He had no idea if she had even been told about the whole Keroro thing or even how she was handling it. He didn't really know if she felt like she was a prisoner here and just kept to her own secluded area or if she was just ill and that was why she hadn't been around.

He suspected she just wasn't in this room because she knew Tamama would be here and was trying her best to keep out of Tamama's way. It was probably a smart choice on her part. He tried not to think too much about it.

He turned to Kululu instead. "Hey, Kululu."

Kululu glanced up. "Hey~." He said back in a creepy way. Just a simple greeting felt like nails on a chalkboard with Kululu.

Giroro grimaced. "You're as smart as any of these scientists on Keron, right? You're in the top level of smartitute."

It was Kululu's turn to grimace. "Please….Please don't use the word smartitute to describe me. It just...Drains my intellect so much. That's...That's such dumb vocabulary. Ku, ku, ku."

Giroro tried not to get embarrassed. "Never mind that. You're as good as scientists, right?"

"Yes?" Kululu asked. "'As good as scientists'" He quoted sarcastically, "I'm better than any scientist. I could be a scientist if I wanted, but I prefer the term inventor."

Giroro ignored his pride. "Do you know much about the process of cloning?" He asked.

Tamama stopped playing his pinball game to look over, his interest suddenly piqued. He knew Giroro was referencing Keroro's situation. Still he pretended that he wasn't obviously listening.

"Of course I do. I could make a clone easily of Keroro's level, with the memories and the personality intact." Kululu boasted. "I just don't really feel the need to ever do such a thing. Especially since cloning and making perfect replicas of cells requires a lot of time and patience. I mean I could do it, it's just boring work. Not nearly as rewarding as putting together parts."

Giroro perked up. _He could easily do it! He said it right there!_ "Then...Could you make a clone of Keroro?" He requested.

Kululu suspected Giroro wasn't talking in hypothetical, he sounded serious. "Why are you asking?" He finally asked.

"I...I've decided that I want to bring Keroro back to Pekopon. Fuyuki and Natsumi don't deserve to be torn apart from him. He's important in their life." Giroro paused. "However Keron won't let him go after this war. Not after he's made so much progress. So I devised a plan. We'll replace Keroro with another clone and take our Keroro back to Pekopon. Keron can have their god and be satisfied and Keroro will be free." He sounded proud and excited by his idea.

Kululu looked at him for a long moment and then shook his head. "Wouldn't work."

"Why not?" Giroro asked incredulously.

"Didn't you hear what the colonel and Keroro's father said about Keroro?" Kululu asked. "His clones haven't lasted a single year. Usually they die off before then. This Keroro is the only one who's managed to stay alive and show no signs of illness or the cells tearing apart. So even if I made a clone that clone would die and they would still need this Keroro." Kululu described.

"But...But you're Kululu! If anyone could make a successful Keroro it would be you!" Giroro insisted.

Kululu looked a bit angry for a moment, but that anger didn't seem to be directed at Giroro. "There have been plenty of smart guys throughout history. I'm sure there were guys just as smart as me if not smarter on the Keroro project. Heck, I bet the person who started it was as smart as me. Geniuses are a dime a dozen here." He reluctantly admitted. "My intellect would bring nothing special to the table. That and..." He paused.

"It's very likely that Keroro's DNA structure is unstable and that's why there's no successful clones. The current Keroro being like he is is a miracle that I can't even explain via science. Honestly a lot of things about that guy perplex me and can't be explained via science, but I guess that goes along with the whole 'God' phenomenon. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu still didn't seem to really like calling Keroro a god or believing in such a thing despite it being in front of him. He didn't like things he couldn't explain with science.

"Unstable?" Giroro asked.

"Yes. All the cells of the other Keroro clones die off or tear apart. The DNA wasn't meant to be replicated and always self destructs." Kululu explained.

Giroro thought for a moment. "Then what about Dark Keroro? He showed no signs of having problems!"

"Ah, but he wasn't a perfect clone." Kululu pointed out, "You could even tell by how different the two looked. The reason that he probably lasted as long as he did was because he didn't have the full package of cells. He was combined with Kiruru too making things stabilize better so he could actually have life. Be his own thing and all."

Giroro just frowned. _So my idea was pointless? It can't have any use?_ No other Keroro's could be created. Not even Kululu could do it so it was hopeless.

"Well I'm glad you can't clone him again." Tamama finally spoke up, "It's wrong to have two Keroro's at once! Just imagine how much more complicated things would be if there was another one." Tamama finally piped up.

"Wrong?" Giroro asked. How was it wrong? He remembered several times when Keroro had been cloned by enemies and there had been two of them.

"Only one Keroro should be around at a time. And it should be the true Keroro." Tamama decided.

"Well then, genius, what's the true Keroro?" Kululu decided to get into this discussion.

Tamama blinked, looking unsure. "I...I don't know." He admitted. "I don't know who or what the true Keroro is." It seemed that was as far as his argument went.

 _Is the true Keroro the one I've known all along, the God, the Keroro who saved me or one of Giroro's friends?_ Tamama wondered. He really didn't know. His lip just quivered and his fist tightened trying desperately to think about it.

If the Keroro of Pekopon was the true one it could be so much easier, but was the premise or idea of a true Keroro just false in general? Was there no such thing as true?

Giroro seemed to notice Tamama's confusion. His fist tightened. _I'm confused too._ He remembered. _I'm mad too still._ He wanted to save Keroro but that was mostly for Natsumi and Fuyuki's sake. He still didn't know how to feel about it himself.

So he decided to try to help Tamama, hoping yet again that another person would help him understand how he felt himself. "So….You knew a previous Keroro in your life too." He started up the conversation awkwardly, "How...How do you feel about this current Keroro? Is...He the same as yours? Or...Is he just an impostor?" Giroro asked.

Tamama just shook his head the anger out of him and just scared and worried in childish confusion. "I don't know. I just don't know." He admitted. "He doesn't remember anything about the Keroro I met so that means they're clearly different I mean, they even acted different, but..." He just looked down. "I was in love with Mr. Sergeant for so long. That entire time on Pekopon I focused on him and tried to win him over. I spent time with him and bonded with him. Is that nothing because I fell in love with him for the wrong reasons and he was the wrong person? Is a clone of my Keroro still Keroro?" He wondered. "I don't know."  
Giroro didn't either. Tamama just seemed to be babbling non-stop.

"Giroro...If...If you learned that Natsumi was actually a clone of the original Natsumi who beat you in that fight when you came to Pekopon and that Natsumi was dead, what would you do?" Tamama asked. "Would you still love the Natsumi clone? Would she be the same person."

Giroro's eyes widened. He hadn't thought of Tamama's situation like that. He hadn't even tried to put himself in anyone's footsteps like Keroro's or Tamama's and putting Natsumi in a similar position.

"Don't ask him that, he's an idiot." Kululu advised.

Giroro growled. _Now I have to think up a really smart answer to show up Kululu!_ "W-well..." He stuttered, "Umm..I guess it would depend on how long I knew the Natsumi clone." He tried to reply, "If we had bonded in our own way and I had fallen in love with her myself, instead of just reflecting on what the past Natsumi had done. If every day I saw her I fell more and more in love with her I would know that it was her I loved too. Not just the original Natsumi." Giroro decided.

He didn't hear any awe from Kululu over his smart answer. But awe from Kululu wasn't going to happen ever, that was an impossible premise.

Tamama frowned. He didn't really understand his own heart. It was so dark and black. _But did I love him only because he reminded me of the first Mr. Sergeant?_

He hadn't found any clearance from Giroro's answer, perhaps Giroro's heart wasn't as black and complicated and conflicted as his heart. But he knew one heart that was even blacker than his. He just looked at Kululu with obvious distaste on his face. "I'm reluctant to admit you can feel love, but maybe you'll have an answer that's easier to understand. If...If your love..." Tamama was trying not to puke at that sentence, "Was replaced by a clone and the original died what would you do?"

Kululu looked amused by the question. "You're not going to find anything to relate to in my answer." He put a disclaimer on his, "But I actually know exactly what I would do. I wouldn't have some stupid confusion phase like you or Giroro probably would it's because I'm smarter than both of you and understand my own feelings better." Kululu boasted.

"Uhhhhh,,,,, weren't you previously afraid of Mois? And now you two are dating and you're in love? That sounds like a much larger confusion than anything I've been through." Giroro frowned.

Kululu ignored him because Giroro spoke the truth. He didn't pay attention to things that were right and he didn't like. "First, I'd have known Mois was a clone the whole time because she would not have any sparkles. I would then sit down with the clone Mois and have a long talk with her about how she felt and what she wanted to do from there to establish if she had her own will and feelings that differed from the previous Mois's."

 _That seems logical._ Both Giroro and Tamama realized. Both of them had neglected to really think about the clone's feelings. They had just thought about their own.

"Then if she still wanted my companionship and it was basically the same Mois who was just sort of resurrected via cloning I'd just simply clone myself, make sure I was a perfect copy and had the original feelings and memories of myself, then once my clone basically was my original in every way the clone would kill me and replace me. Since I had given permission there would be no messy ethical problems and I'd basically resurrect via the clone. Original Mois and Original Kululu would then be the clone Mois and clone Kululu and they would become the new originals." Kululu shrugged. "Ku, ku, ku. Easy solution. We're both clones so nobody feels weird about anything."

Tamama just stared. "That...That is the single most weirdest process ever. No way can I do that."

"Yeah...I don't even know how you could reach that as a conclusion! That's way too severe of an answer!" Giroro's mouth was just hanging open. He knew Kululu was prone to figuring out solutions through technology but that seemed way too brutal.

Kululu shrugged. "It's better than ignoring someone you like because you felt betrayed over them going through a process that they in no way had any consent for or knew about." He pointed out.

Giroro and Tamama shut up. Kululu was right.

"I...I have to think about things." Tamama decided and scrambled to the door. "You've helped me with your words. Giroro has- Kululu's solution didn't really help at all." Tamama frowned. "G-giroro might be right. I got along better with Mr. Sergeant when I met him than I did in our shared past. I learned more about him and knew him longer. I...I truly did get to know him and become his friend. I liked playing with him." But was that the love that he had felt because he had been saved? He still didn't know.

Giroro nodded. "Glad I helped." He told him. He wasn't exactly sure if he was glad though. _I don't really actually know if Keroro wants Tamama to love him. It might stress him out more than help him if he's not interested._ He had never really focused too hard on Keroro's and Tamama's relationship. He really had no idea if Keroro had ever returned those feelings.

He watched Tamama go, hoping things would turn out all right.

 _I still have a promise to keep. Get Keroro safely home._ Giroro reminded himself.

* * *

It didn't take that long for them to be sent onto the battlefield. And it wasn't just Keroro this time.

Sure, there had been a little bit of a break after the death of Dororo because the military had wanted Keroro to be in a good condition, but now was the time for the fighting to begin.

Although Kululu didn't seem very excited about getting sent outside to a battleground, Giroro felt like his smile would just burst.

He just liked battles. He liked being useful to Keron and making his family proud. No matter how many of his comrades were frowning, Giroro could feel his blood pulse with excitement and he smiled. He would beat all of those Vipers who stood in his way.

 _Wait...I've got it. How I can help Keroro._ Giroro realized. _I'm not good at many things. I'm not smart like Kululu. I'm not as kind as Dororo, but I am strong. I live for battle. That's my purpose._ Giroro reminded himself.

He had a plan in his head now. All he had to do was fight off all the Vipers on his own, charge into every fight and gather the attention. If he was the one doing the most fighting Keroro wouldn't have to use any of his powers. If Keroro didn't use his powers he would look useless and Keron would see no point for him and they would release him.

It was perfect. Giroro could battle and Keroro could be just as incompetent as he was usually. He was putting both their faults to good use! Laziness and Destructive thirst for battle!

 _I'll free you. I'll fight everything._ Giroro vowed.

He excitedly went into battles, loaded with weaponry. Just as he had planned every time a Viper would show up he'd step in front of Keroro and up to the front lines.

"Giroro-!" Keroro would say a little worriedly. But Giroro would charge in screaming.

"I'll take them all on! I'm a warrior! I can do it!" He would say and he would just shoot and shoot. He was a pretty good shot, but he wasn't exactly sure if he was making a dent on any of their bodies. Even without the flyians the Vipers were tough.

But Giroro would fight, he would put his life on the line hoping to win and eliminate just one enemy. Just one. If he knew he could do it once he could do it a thousand times.

 _You're a soldier. All of your training in childhood was for this. To withstand all of this._ He reminded himself. He would then throw a grenade or even a smoke bomb at the Viper so Keroro couldn't see and get closer.

The Viper would attack him and shoot at his skin, Giroro would just narrowly dodge. _If those bullets hit me half my body could just be destroyed-minimum I'd get an arm blown off._

He didn't feel fear towards the battle, he just kept fighting trying to focus on two tasks at once- keeping Keroro away at all costs and fighting.

As hours went on and on in the thick of battle and he tried to keep up his endurance and jump from opponent to opponent to just garner their attention, Giroro wondered who he was fighting for. _Am I truly fighting to bring Keroro home? Am I fighting so hard for Keroro?_ He could die here. Natsumi would never see him again. She would be furious at him and devastated. _Am I fighting for Fuyuki who may in fact someday be my brother-in-law?_ Giroro wondered. _Or am I fighting with Garuru to protect the planet he lives on and make him proud?_

He felt it deep in his heart. It wasn't any of those was it? _I'm selfish. I'm fighting for myself, aren't I? I'm not as loving as any of those options. I just battle because I can. Because I have to._

He didn't know that anyone else would consider him a very loving person, but he begun to let up second guessing himself. If he was only fighting for himself did he really deserve to win this battle?

His strength began to wane, he begun to get more tired. After all Giroro's true strength to keep going on in battle came from love.

"Giroro!" Keroro yelled as another Viper bullet came for him.

Giroro looked up. _Crap I'm going to get hit!_ There was no way to dodge this.

"DUCK!" Tamama yelled rushing up as if he was going to push Giroro out of the way and take the bullet himself "Tamama impact!" Tamama blew his signature energy at the bullet.

Giroro ducked, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed Keroro glow- the glow stopped as soon as Tamama skidded to a halt instead of rushing in front of the bullet, but it was clear what was going to happen. If Tamama had run in front Keroro would have unlocked his supernatural powers and intervened.

Instead the bullet was shattered into a million pieces by Tamama's energy blast. Giroro thought he was safe from the wreckage so he stood up. "AUGH!" Some of the sharp points hit his chest.

Everyone rushed up to him as he fell onto his knees. He could see their worried looks. _I'm not so weak that I'd lose...I won't fall here. I won't die._ He wanted to say. He wanted them to see him as strong. He could do this. He could win this war for all of them.

But instead he fell flat onto his face and lost consciousness.

* * *

It was a day later when people were able to visit Giroro again and he was cleared to go back into the field. It really was about only an hour after he had woken up.

Tamama visited him. He noticed Kululu by his side treating his injuries.

"This wouldn't have happened if you weren't so stupid." Kululu pointed out. He handed Giroro a bandage, "That and your injury was made so much worse because you over-exerted yourself. You probably would have been fine because it's you if you hadn't tried to fight literally everything you saw. Ku, ku, ku."

Giroro wrapped his chest in a few bandages. "I don't need your help. You just make things hurt more."

"The hurt means it's healing." Kululu shrugged. "And I can't do anything for you if you die. Can't bring back the dead or reanimate parts of the body, ku, ku, ku. I do have a keen eye though and it's thanks to me that you're still alive."

Giroro rubbed his chest. "You took out the small pieces, didn't you? Because you're skilled in surgeries and stuff."

"Ku, ku, ku. Yep. And I know a lot about your body from changing you into so many different shapes for fun. Where organs are supposed to be and things. I think I switched some things up last time-"

"WHAT." Giroro yelled. "Put it back! Wherever my organs were supposed to be put them in their proper location!"

"Ku, ku, ku. Relax. I put everything back long ago." Kululu grinned. "Two weeks ago." He said under his breath so Giroro couldn't hear.

Tamama just grimaced as he walked in. _So...He over strained himself, that's why he got hurt?_ He didn't want that to happen. "Can...Can I come in?"

"Sure." Giroro nodded.

Tamama sat down closer to Giroro than Kululu. He kinda thought it was best to separate them. "You...You don't have to over-strain yourself, Giroro. You don't have to go up to everything and do all the fighting on your own."

"I do." Giroro grit his teeth. Tamama didn't know why he was doing this, so that Keroro wouldn't have to fight.

"No, you don't! We're a platoon! Or we were back when things were all nice and normal!" Tamama reminded. "Kululu might not be good with the front lines or Mr. Sergeant but I am….I can help you! I can fight with you!" Tamama insisted.

Giroro looked caught off guard. He had forgotten about Tamama's area of expertise. Tamama was a soldier too. "You'd...Help me?" Tamama didn't even know the real reason Giroro was doing this.

Tamama nodded. "Keroro...Keroro taught us to stick together. We've got to work together. Let me help." Tamama offered.

Giroro smiled. "I'd love nothing better." And he took Tamama's hand letting himself be helped up.

* * *

Once Tamama joined Giroro up at the front lines it was much easier to fight. They still weren't getting close to defeating a single viper but they worked better as a team and were much safer than normal. Neither of them were alone any longer and they managed to gather the Viper's attention more than Keroro.

Things weren't perfect though and eventually despite their best efforts, things did get dangerous.

It wasn't a gun bullet this time from a Viper's arm, it was from a Viper's eyes. Just like Taruru laser's came out of the Viper's eyes in an energy fashion similar to Tamama's.

It must have been the flyians power, but it was red and it looked like fire. It was stronger than anything Tamama had ever produced by far.

Tamama was in the path way of where it would hit and there was no way to dodge. Tamama's eyes widened and his hands seemed to go out in front of him as if trying to stop what would inevitably hit.

"NOOOO!" Keroro screamed, not near enough to reach, but obviously distraught with worry. Yet again Giroro saw the glow emit from Keroro's body.

And then he realized it. _His power's are activated by negative emotions. It was Fuyuki's death that triggered this whole thing._ It was clear from Keroro's scream that Keroro cared just as much about Tamama's life as Fuyuki's if not a little bit more.

 _If he loses Tamama he'll break. He'll become a God and then Keron will have him forever._ Keroro cared for Tamama in a special way. And Giroro, who was an expert on this sort of emotion, knew exactly what special way that was. _He loves him, doesn't he? It's clear from just how much concern he feels when Tamama's in danger. I don't know if Keroro knows but he does love him somewhere._

That meant that Tamama was different than the rest of them. It was his injuries that would cause Keroro's grief and make him become a god.

 _I can't allow him to become a God. I just can't. I've got to bring him home._ And in that moment Giroro knew what to do. He knew then that he wasn't fighting for himself or for Fuyuki or for Garuru.

He was fighting for Keroro, his childhood friend, his friend on Pekopon, his platoon leader. All the Keroro's. Because they were all his. It didn't matter if he was a clone or not, they all had different unique traits and Giroro wanted to protect all of them. No, it was his destiny to protect him. Just as his father had tried to do for Keroro's father.

So Giroro did something stupid. He ran in front of Tamama shielding his body so he would take the entire blast.

The glow stopped but so did everything light around Giroro. And Giroro fell.

Tamama just shivered. "G-giroro? Giroro?" He asked, trying to shake him. He hadn't gotten caught in the blast thanks to Giroro's body being used as a shield.

But he didn't know if Giroro was even breathing now, or alive, he just looked like a somewhat charred crisp. Tamama started sniffling.

"Nice try." Kululu told the Viper, sneaking up behind it. He wasn't very good at battle but thanks to Giroro falling in battle it seemed like the Viper was distracted. The Viper seemed confused by Kululu's sudden appearance out of nowhere and leaned down.

That seemed to be exactly what Kululu wanted. He tossed a plate of curry into it's mouth. "It's super spicy. Have fun. Ku, ku, ku."

He then walked away casually towards Giroro to see if there was anything that could be done about that.

The Viper screamed. "AUGHH!" It cried. It opened it's mouth and all the flyians in it's body swarmed out. All of the other Viper's on the battlefield were so transfixed by this sight, the flyian's eyes in absolute fear as this Viper vomitted up flyians from an overdose of spice.

"Blow it up. It should just be a normal viper now." Kululu instructed.

Keroro nodded and ran over to the Viper, "This is for Giroro!" he yelled, tossing one of Giroro's grenades at the thing.

The Viper was still screaming from the spice, but the grenade hit it, blew up taking the Viper's life with it.

Due to the distraction of the dead Viper, Tamama, Kululu and Keroro were able to drag Giroro's body off of the field.

* * *

Giroro felt weak. He felt like his mind was drifting, but eventually he woke up. He didn't know how long he had been out.

Keroro was sitting at his bed-side. Giroro was in a hospital room. Giroro glanced down at his own hand, it was the only thing he could see.

It was completely charred. Burn marks were all over it. _What happened? How long was I out?_

Keroro noticed that Giroro looked awake. "Kululu worked on you. He said he couldn't really save your keronian form, but any of your injuries shouldn't carry over to your pekoponian form." He gestured to a pill bottle. "He...He made a new formula to keep you pekoponian if you decide that your injuries are too severe. He said to take a pill each week."

 _That's nice._ Giroro thought to himself, kind of out of it.

"It..It wasn't just Kululu who saved your life though. He just did what he could to stabilize your condition until a better doctor could come to the base. To do that he made you pekoponian for a bit until...We were ready to deal with you being keronian and the risk of you well, dying." Keroro explained.

"Hey Giroro! I came as soon as I could!" Pururu waved from behind a curtain. She then went off somewhere to fetch something.

 _Pururu. So you're the doctor they called in._ Giroro briefly wondered if his brother was with her. But he already knew the answer, of course he was. Any injury such as this would make his brother come straight to his side. When he had gotten the scar on his face Garuru had been by his side at the hospital every day.

"Why'd you do it?" Keroro finally asked. "You could have died. Why did you fight so hard? I… I could have been pulling more of my weight. You and Tamama didn't have to do most of the battle on your own." He was looking at his legs crying a little.

"B-because you're an idiot." Giroro finally croaked. "I needed to fight so you wouldn't have to. I-I'm going to bring you home, remember?"

Keroro just grabbed Giroro's hand and held it. "I didn't want you to die for me to go home though!"

Giroro gave a small smile. "I won't die that easily. I've gone through plenty of tougher battles than this, ones you weren't technically in. I've had more painful injures inflicted on me by Kululu. I can handle this. This is the life of a soldier."

"You aren't a soldier. They kicked you out." Keroro reminded. "You don't have to fight, you don't have to be injured. You can finally let go and move on with your life from Keron. Please...I'm begging you, this is going too far. Sneak off like Dororo did. Go back to Pekopon. Go back home to Natsumi."

"I...I c-can't. Leaving the battlefield...That's shameful. That's a soldier's shame. That's being cowardly and running away. I have to stay here to make Dad and Garuru proud! My family...My family needs me." Giroro replied.

"At this rate you'll die. Your father and Garuru don't want that." Keroro begged him. "Leaving your girlfriend back on Pekopon to be macho is shameful. This isn't your battle."

"But-" Giroro hesitated.

"Garuru would understand. He's here resting but he's been with you while you were out. I bet Pururu left to go get him." Keroro told him, "Don't prove yourself to the Keron government. They cut you lose. They betrayed you. Even if you win this battle they won't want you back. And your brother would be more proud of you being alive than anything."

Giroro frowned. He couldn't say anything against that because it was true. "I..I can't..I promised myself...I'd bring you home..I have to stay."

"You have a life to worry about! Your own life! You have Pekopon and Natsumi and your family. You've got to live for them. You can't get more injured when Natsumi's already worried about you!" Keroro yelled. "Go home! Please! The Demon Sergeant has already instantly agreed to let you go home if you want. He doesn't want his friend's kid dead."

"No, I gotta help you-" Giroro refused again.

Keroro started sobbing. "Giroro...You have to understand...When you told me you'd help me get back to Pekopon I was happy because you were trying to help me. Talking to me and being my friend again. But I knew I could never go back." He paused. "I had no plans to go back, Giroro. You've got to hear this."

"I'll free you. I'll stop the colonel-" Giroro tried to tell him.

"No, it doesn't have anything to do with the military." Keroro shook his head. He put his hand on his heart. "I...I can feel the pull on my soul. To go home. To go back. To whatever my real home is. Or my place as a god. I...I think I'm going some place that you can't follow. I'm losing myself. My identity, my thoughts...Everything. I keep spacing out and it feels like I'm out of my body. My soul's getting tugged out. I'm feeling more and more power around me. I'm...Going back to the other world I think? My soul's ascending. It can't go back to Pekopon."

"Refuse it then, fight it, Keroro." Giroro begged.

Keroro shook his head. "I...I think I'm in the final stretch. The end games. It feels like if I fight my molecular structure will start falling apart. The miracle that created me in the first place as the first Keroro clone that lived this long will break apart, and I will die as a clone. It's either become a God or die as a clone. There is no chance to go back to Pekopon out of those two options. I have decided to live and stay here helping Keron. Because I love Keron and my people here."

Giroro was speechless. "But what about Natsumi and Fuyuki-"

"I want Fuyuki to have at least one alien friend. He can't lose both of us." Keroro told him, "You have to live FOR me. You have to live to be there for Natsumi and Fuyuki. You have to go home and be there for them. Please I am begging you and asking for me, please go back to Pekopon and stay with Fuyuki. Be his friend."

Giroro looked hesitant, but he listened to everything Keroro was saying. It was just hard to hear. He had worked so hard for this not to happen. "O-okay." He finally agreed. Keroro was right.

And it was doubtful he could fight in his condition anyway. The Demon Sergeant probably wouldn't let him go out into the field. There was no point to fight a pointless battle. This pointless battle was bringing Keroro back home. He just felt sad about it. He didn't want it to be pointless or hopeless. He had lost.

Keroro had chosen Giroro's life over a chance at freedom, and although Giroro appreciated it he still felt sad. "In the end you really were my friend." Giroro finally told him.

"You...You forgive me?" Keroro asked.

"Mmm-hmmm." Giroro replied. It hurt too much to nod.

"You were one of my best friend's Giroro." Keroro smiled, "I don't care about my other lives in the other generations. You and Dororo were some of the best friends I had. I'll always remember you."

"I'll...I'll remember you for eternity too, Keroro." Giroro told him, "And I'll continue on your memory."

"Will you name your first born after me?" Keroro said excitedly hoping that was what Giroro meant. That was a good way to continue on his memory!

"In your dreams." Giroro teased. "Keroro is a terrible name. It's got a terrible naming sense. It's just the planet's name in a keronian fashion basically!"

Keroro laughed. "It's your God's name, so it's not that bad."

Giroro frowned. "Can't believe none of us questioned your name before and how generic it was."

Keroro just laughed some more.

The door opened and Pururu walked in with Garuru.

"He's awake? How's he feeling?" Garuru asked desperately.

"He's speaking more. And he's decided that he'll go back to Pekopon." Keroro explained.

Garuru looked relieved for a moment. "That must have been a hard decision for you." He looked sympathetic at Giroro. "We'll be fine here on Keron, but I've been given permission to help transport you. It...It's probably best not to stay in the base longer than needed."

Giroro's eyes watered when he saw his brother. He sniffed. "Y-yeah..." He agreed trying to hear what Garuru was saying.

"I've got a wheel chair." Pururu offered, "We can move him into that and move him onto the ship. I don't know if Keroro told you about the pills-"

"He did. I'll have to see Kululu regularly I suppose." Giroro sighed.

"Sorry." Garuru apologized. Giroro really did have his sympathizes.

Giroro seemed hesitant to ask any questions as Garuru moved him to the wheel chair. He was beginning to hurt less and wake up more. "Are...Are you proud of me? Have I disappointed father and you by being exiled to Pekopon?" He finally asked.

Garuru looked at him for a moment. "Never. You never disappoint me, Giroro." He insisted. "You followed your heart in every instance. The current ruling class just couldn't see how much of a merit you were. I couldn't be more proud to have you as my brother."

Giroro grinned bashfully.

Pururu packed up various supplies and materials of Giroro. "It's time to go then, don't want to stay here longer then needed."

"Can...Can I have a moment alone with Keroro to say good-bye to him?" Giroro asked.

Pururu nodded. Obviously she and Garuru hadn't been told about the whole clone thing because they weren't acting any differently towards Keroro.

Keroro stood awkwardly as Pururu and Garuru left. "Thanks." He seemed to know that Giroro knew they hadn't been told yet. He didn't want Garuru and Pururu to discard him too if Giroro let anything slip about Keroro being a clone.

"I...I just wanted to thank you yet again, for proving you were my friend in the end." Giroro told him.

Keroro nodded.

"And I wanted to give you a word of advice for the future something that if I didn't tell you I wouldn't be very supportive or a good friend myself." Giroro offered.

Keroro perked up.

"Hurry up and tell Tamama you love him." Giroro advised.

Keroro turned pink. "I don't- I mean, I think you're a little confused. How do I know you don't love him?" He asked very badly fumbling.

Giroro just narrowed his eyes. "Look this little sorting out your confused feelings thing and being dense might have been fine before because you had time to be working through things like denial and maybe sorting out your sexuality, I don't know, but you literally don't have time for it anymore." Giroro glared at him, "You are losing your mortality and your humanity, Keroro. You might lose your memories and your emotions when you fully become a God. So you've got to tell him and be with him before you lose your chance." He sighed. "If you still don't know that you like Tamama, hurry up and realize you do. Stop being an idiot about this!"

Keroro just frowned. There was a knock on the door signaling that Garuru and Pururu needed to come in to get Giroro again.

Keroro hurriedly started waving to Giroro as the doors opened. "Good-bye! I'll miss you! That was a real funny joke! Ha ha!" He laughed nervously, trying to laugh off Giroro's words.

"It was advice." Giroro sighed, tiredly.

"Ummm...Uhhh...I'll miss you lots and lots! You're a great friend, Giroro!" Keroro kept shouting.

Garuru smiled.

"See you soon, Keroro!" Pururu told him having no idea that she would not see him as Garuru and Pururu wheeled Giroro away.

Giroro waved one last time. "Good-bye, my friend." And he was gone.

Keroro watched him leave until finally he couldn't see him anymore. He laughed a little to himself still trying to nervously laugh off what Giroro had said.

 _Me? Like Tamama? Nah. That might have been the other me. And I don't think about Tamama in a romantic fashion at all- that much._ Keroro corrected. But it was only some and it was because Tamama had tried so hard to seduce him and it was kind of hard to ignore some of the things he had done and said.

When someone said out loud to your face that they wanted to sleep with you it gave you some thoughts, which Keroro had quickly put away and tried not to think about because he was absolutely sure there was a misunderstanding. Also that was a little embarrassing to think about and it just made him turn red that Tamama had declared to his face that he wanted to have a dangerous love affair to him.

At the time he hadn't taken it very seriously and had chalked it up to a mistake, but he now knew that Tamama was speaking a little too honestly during that time.

He thought more and more about Tamama as he continued to think about Giroro's words. How much it hurt when Tamama was hurt, how much he wanted to protect him, how much Tamama had supported him over the years.

And then he thought about how much it hurt to not have that support or Tamama by his side. _Oh no._ He realized with horror. It had always been Tamama's hatred that hurt him the most after the revelation of him being a clone. It wasn't the idea of anyone else's hatred. It was Tamama's.

 _Oh no. Giroro's right. I am in love with Tamama. The current me. Like...I'm really 100% in love with Tamama._ Keroro realized.

Every time Tamama had offered his support and been there for him, Keroro had practically thrown himself into Tamama's arms. He had been increasingly worried about him and thinking about him during this cloning incident.

He realized suddenly that he had started falling in love with Tamama long ago. Tamama had been his friend and Keroro had gotten to know him. He had fallen in love with him because he was his friend, a good one. He liked being with him and having fun with him, but at the time he had thought he would have forever to figure things out. He had thought they could just hang out like normal and they'd just be friends forever, and he'd have time to deal with his feelings and confront them.

He didn't have forever anymore. He was forced to think about it now. No, he had to think about it. Because he was losing his humanity and soon enough that love could be gone. He could stop feeling it and it would be taken from him along with the other emotions that made him human.

It didn't make sense for a God to have the ability to fall in love. Not with one person. A God had to love all their people equally, right? So that love that he had for Tamama would no doubt be taken from him. He'd lose it and just be consumed by the power of being a god.

 _But I've fallen for someone anyway, despite how doomed it is._ Keroro realized with horror. And it was a boy at that. He wondered briefly if Tamama would even accept his love or if that other Keroro was just a brief one time crush to him.

Either way it wasn't going to work out. He was going to lose his feelings. Keroro cried into his hands.

 _I wonder if I can be a normal person for just one more day._ That was all he was hoping for now.

Keroro just cried and cried as he tried to feel his feelings. He wanted to try to secure them so that when he became a god he might remember them at least somewhat.

 _I just want to be me. Why is that so hard?_ He didn't know. There was no answer to that.

* * *

 **Please review! I hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

 **I'll try to crank out another one soon. It's supposed to be Kululu-ish, but I think (? don't quote me on this) it's got a lot of focus on kerotama too because there's only two chapters left. Basically I think there was the rare problem of not enough Kululu so uhhh it might not have as much bonding of platoon mates as the Dororo and Giroro chapter had.**


	16. Same Mistakes

**This is technically the Kululu chapter, but it unfortunately does not have that much Kululu Keroro bonding because it's the second to last chapter and had to have actual plot stuff. (Basically that good old Kerotama)**

 **Not all chapters can be unfortunately episodic. Sorry! Next chapter is the last chapter though. This story is almost finished.**

* * *

Keroro didn't want anyone else hurt on the battlefield. Not like Giroro had been. _And if Tamama gets injured…._ He couldn't even process or think about something like that. It was too horrible, too extreme.

He was getting skittish on the field. Wracked by worry he couldn't really focus on anything else.

 _What do I do?_ Keroro wondered. He still couldn't control his power, he didn't even understand it or know how to access it. He knew it had something to do with worry and grief, but he didn't know anything more.

That and the power scared him. He knew that each time he had it all he could feel was power. Nothing else was in his mind, not his emotions, thoughts or images of friends.

He didn't want to have to be a God to protect everyone and win a war. _Do I have to do this?_ He wondered. It looked like he was the only one who could beat the flyians.

 _That's not true._ He realized. There was only one person who had beaten a Viper on the field. And that was Kululu.

He recalled Kululu giving some curry to a viper and they had puked up their flyians. Sure, they hadn't beaten the flyians but they had beaten a Viper. And it was the Vipers who were killing Keronians.

 _I don't know how Kululu beat a viper with just curry but it's him who can win this war._ Keroro realized. Kululu was always finding solutions to situations that were much too hard for the average mind. He was sure that Kululu could find a solution for the war that didn't involve him.

So he approached Kululu before a battle, desperately. Kululu wasn't avoiding eye contact with him or speaking to him. He just didn't see him around the base very much. Keroro assumed that he was probably hanging out in his room instead of involving himself in Keroro's issues. He had heard that Angol Mois and him were sharing a room.

 _Honestly I didn't even really remember that Mois was in this base. I haven't seen her AT ALL or heard what she's up to._ Maybe she was in a jacuzzi. He literally had no idea, but the idea that she might be avoiding Tamama had gone through his head once or twice.

Kululu was probably just spending time with her instead of involving himself in the drama that was Keroro's existence.

"Kululu. I have a request for you." Keroro waved.

Kululu glanced over at him. "What?"

"I want you to solve this war. You have the power and tools don't you? I mean I bet if we used all your inventions, went in with all your devices this war would be nothing!" Keroro tried to compliment. "And then we'd just be out of this situation."

Kululu laughed. "Ku, ku, ku. Do you really think my intellect is just some deus ex machina that can solve all the world's problems?" He asked. "I'm flattered by the compliment but I can't win an entire war on my own. The flyians are unfortunately even out of my reach."

"You could try though." Keroro tried to spark some effort in him, "I don't feel like you're even really trying. If you tried I'm sure we would get somewhere at least!" Keroro told him, "Why are you so afraid to show your keronian pride and defend your planet?"

Kululu glared at him, "Did you forget the whole 'banished and exiled' thing? We were lied to and used. I guess it would be easy for you to forget that Keron has no faith in us and doesn't want us since they obviously want _you._ " Kululu hissed. "I lost all my pride as a keronian once I learned I was cast aside and I was being used as bait for some flyians. Just like any normal keronian would feel. I doubt you'd understand though." He snapped angrily.

Keroro looked confused. "If...If that's the case and you don't want to be here….Why are you helping us? Why are you fighting in a war you want no part of? Why are you even here?" _Is it to help our platoon? To help me?_ Kululu was still there after all even though Dororo and Giroro had left.

Kululu laughed again, "Ku, ku, ku. Don't think anything weird. I'm not here because of any loyalty. I'm only here because I have to be."

"Have to be?" Keroro was confused. _Because of friendship for me?_

"When Agugu and the good old colonel abducted me and Mois," Kululu explained using the word abducted instead of anything else, "They unfortunately learned things about us that I...I hadn't had the chance yet to discover myself." He looked a little shaky and was looking at the ground.

"Like that you have feelings and friends?" Keroro asked hoping for a friendship speech. He was so used to Fuyuki.

Kululu looked at him odd. "My life has nothing to do with you." He pointed out, "No, they found out that umm..." He seemed hesitant to continue, "That Mois was showing early signs of pregnancy. I uhhhh…apparently knocked her up?"

Keroro took a step back. That was more startling than the whole Keron has a god thing! "Mois and you are going to have a kid?" He was terrified for a second.

Kululu just waited for a congratulations or something. He looked expectantly.

"C-congratulations?" Keroro finally said, knowing that Kululu wouldn't continue on with his story until he said that.

"Thank you." Kululu nodded politely, looking slightly smug. He tried to hide it after a second.

 _At least I know what Mois's been up to now. She's probably been sorting that out and resting. I mean...She already sleeps so much I can't even imagine how much more she's sleeping._ He briefly wondered if Kululu had even had a chance to tell her that he was a clone or if they had both just been so desperate to talk about the issues affecting their lives. They were probably more focused on planning what to do about the kid that would be in their lives than gossiping about Keroro's issues.

"Anyway, when they...The military discovered this they offered help in the situation. This...This will be the first half-keronian, half-angolian kid after all." Kululu pointed out, "It's very likely that it will be a difficult birthing process, or that there's risk of complications. They said that they'd offer their research facilities to help so that our child wouldn't die." Kululu's voice was shaking.

"Oh! That's actually sweet!" Keroro realized, "So you're here helping to help your kid and Mois. You want to make sure that they stay safe." _I never knew that Kululu had so many feelings._

Kululu slowly shook his head. "You've missed the major point. Their words were helpful but there was a tone of voice...Unspoken words that they meant. I immediately picked up on them. What they were basically saying is 'If you don't help us and stay here we'll kill them, your child will die.'" Kululu now looked like he was gripped by fear.

Keroro's eyes widened. Kululu was being threatened? _So that's why he's here. That's why he doesn't really want to help. He's in a really bad position._

They were both prisoners here. Keroro was a prisoner because he was a God, and Kululu was a prisoner because despite how much Keron hated him they did think that they needed him as well in a tight situation.

"So...That's why you're here….It's not to help me or Keron." Keroro realized, "And Mois? Is she here for us or-?"

"She's here because she has to be. I've asked her to stay in our part of the base so the keronians don't decide to start making any more threats towards us and so that she's safe." Kululu nodded. "I'm honestly working on a teleporter for us to go home, or at least for her to go home. She's not a keronian and should take no part in any of this." He waved his hand. "Her leaving should cause no complications."

Keroro nodded, "But what about the platoon? What about the war? We need you. Don't you care about our platoon and what's left of us?"

Kululu laughed. "Not really. Look, you might be pretending to care about your platoon because you need us to make you feel more selfless or something or more human, but I doubt any of it is genuine." Kululu frowned. "I know a thing or two about caring. You could probably dismiss us all if you truly cared. The only reason we need to be here is because of you." Kululu pointed out.

Keroro looked like he had been slapped in the face. It hurt to hear that, that he was causing pain to his platoon mates indirectly.

"I'd leave if I could." Kululu admitted honestly, "I'm not here to help you. I'm here for Mois." And he walked away, not helping at all with the war.

Keroro just watched him go. _Would they actually let Kululu leave if I asked them to? Are Tamama and Kululu only here so that the military can use me?_

He didn't want to let Tamama and Kululu go though. He didn't want to be alone.

* * *

This time on the field, Keroro saw other keronians as well as Viper's fighting. The troops must have been expanded after the loss of Dororo and the injuries Giroro had sustained.

It was tough as always. The Vipers not only over-powered them but out numbered them as well. Despite Tamama being up at the front lines and Keroro worriedly trying to pull him back, there was always the risk of injury.

Kululu mostly stayed at the back with various screens in his hands and antennas as if monitoring the vipers and their numbers.

"The number of keronian troops is severely decreasing. We're getting slaughtered." He'd yell.

Keroro looked around. There was so much blood. So much screams. He just wanted to cover his ears and cower. But he couldn't. He just had to keep going.

Eventually though, Tamama, Kululu and Keroro found themselves surrounded by 17 Vipers. The largest number they had faced, just the three of them.

Tamama was the first to back away slowly knowing he would die if he went any farther. He went backwards into Keroro. "Oops."

"It's all right." Keroro whispered in a tiny voice, he was backing up too.

Kululu glanced behind him. There was nowhere to go, they were cornered. There was only toppled debrief behind them.

They were quite literally cornered. They were going to get killed like so many other keronians.

 _I can't let Tamama and Kululu be killed!_ Keroro thought. He raised his hands. "Come on God powers! Smite people or something!" But nothing happened.

He couldn't use his power on demand. There was just the wind and silence as Keroro awkwardly stood there.

"Any other bright ideas so we don't get killed?" Tamama asked, very disappointed in Keroro's lack of god-hood.

Keroro rubbed his head bashfully, "Uhhh. We tried running. That did no good. Screaming? That's always my second choice after running."

"Yet again I have to ask myself how I did not see that you were not some big hero for so many years." Tamama sighed. "But that's an answer that's so like you."

Keroro winced. That was really true.

The Vipers got closer and closer. Despite Tamama's insult he screamed, along with Keroro. Kululu just laughed. That was usually his primary emotion in any situation.

Tamama actually grabbed Keroro's hand as if wanting to cling to him one last time. It made Keroro happy for just a moment.

 _I guess we'll just die together. If I had to die I guess this is better than decomposing because I'm a clone._ He thought to himself.

He closed his eyes tightly and clung to Tamama just as hard as Tamama clung to him. Tamama seemed to push Kululu in front of them as if to be the meat shield.

"Thanks." Kululu said sarcastically, but he was shaking too. His glasses were swirling as if he was desperately trying to figure a way out of the current situation.

They didn't have time though for Kululu to fix things. The Viper's mouths unhinged and they snapped downwards as if to swallow Kululu whole.

"ARMAGGEDON!" A voice yelled, descending from the sky. A lucifer spear hit the Vipers head.

Their solution had appeared. The Lord of Terror was here.

In seconds a blast of sand went everywhere. The Viper, along with the flyians inside splattered into a million pieces.

As the world shook for a brief moment and the seventeen vipers exploded in the exact way that Mois had orchestrated, Keroro, Tamama and Kululu tried to keep themselves grounded in the dirt.

It was good that Mois had such good aim and they weren't also exploding, but they had not expected to see her.

"Mois! You saved us!" Keroro dropped his grip off of Tamama as soon as the earthquake became more reasonable. His legs were still shaking though.

"You know, suddenly I want you to be holding me again." Tamama sighed. It seemed his hatred and jealousy for Mois was much more powerful than any mixed emotions he felt for Keroro.

Keroro glanced at him. He knew about Tamama's previous crush on him but apparently he was still too dense to realize Tamama's problems with Mois.

"Don't worry!" Angol Mois spun her spear letting whatever bits of viper fly off of it, "You're savior is here!" She said cheerily, "I had no idea the war was this bad! Kululu was always like 'aww it's no big deal, and always down-played it." She glared at Kululu for a minute, "He wouldn't even let me watch news about it! But I had this feeling that I needed to see what was going on. It's a good thing I heard your screams at this time. Tamama and Uncle sure do scream loudly!"

 _She still calls me Uncle._ Keroro noted. He smiled a bit. So the whole clone thing didn't bother her. _That makes a lot of sense. She's a lot like Fuyuki and Natsumi in a way. Really mostly a person I knew only on Pekopon._ She was a Pekopon only thing.

After all he didn't have many memories at all of the Keroro who had supposedly raised her. He wasn't sure half of the things she even said about him were true. Keroro had remembered her existence until he had seen her in front of him on Pekopon. He suspected the Keroro who raised her was from a different line of memories than the clone line he had been from.

Perhaps that Keroro had been created for the sole purpose of dealing with the angolians, a race that was much too spiritual and powerful for any normal keronian to deal with. Kululu had always hounded him about how he had managed to befriend the angolians and how it just didn't make sense to him how Keroro was so close to such a powerful species.

"I'll fight on your side now." Angol Mois offered, kindly, "I mean this whole thing seems really dangerous for you keronians and I..." She spun her lucifer spear around, "Can just basically end this thing in seconds. Vipers? Just a species of alien. Same as those pesky flyians. I mean I managed to beat those seventeen pretty easily." She pumped her fist.

Tamama just glared. Those seventeen vipers had almost killed them and Mois had just taken them out like they were nothing!

"I'm pretty tough I guess." She giggled. "I'll happily help you!"

Keroro's eyes sparkled. _Yes! She's right! Mois could easily change the tide of this battle! She can fix all these problems! I don't need to be all God-like! Tamama will be safe if she joins the fight!_ It was never Kululu who could change the tide of the battle it was Mois. "Thank you, Mois! You're the best!"

Kululu crossed his arms. "Mois? Could you bend down for a moment?" He asked.

Mois obliged. "Yes?" She assumed Kululu wanted to be closer to say something to her.

He instead pinched her cheeks. "What the heck are you saying? You can't join this battle!" He very gently bopped her on the head.

"But—I could help so easily!" She pointed out.

"Do you know how worried I was for you? I didn't even know you were out here! What would happen if the Vipers shot you down while you were flying? What if they got an angol stone or something?" Kululu asked, "What would you do then? What would you do if you got hurt even a little bit?"

"B-but..I can get hurt-. I could fix this whole thing soooo quickly." Mois pointed out.

"We have literally no idea how much stress or activity your body can stand. Remember what the keronians said? That because our child is growing with only half the necessary angolian genes it's very delicate. Anything could injure you and them. You are freakin pregnant! You can not go into a battlefield like that!" Kululu scolded her.

Angol Mois winced. "But...But you were going to get hurt. I simply took them out with my spear-"

"And your lucifer spear!" Kululu continued to yell, Keroro had never seen him so worried, "Remember what I told you about that? Handling that's over-strenuous activity too. It's dangerous to be using your Lucifer spear in the condition you're in. I ran the numbers on it, did the tests, remember? You can't use it right now."

Angol Mois winced again. She liked her lucifer spear though. "But I like my spear.." She seemed to pout awkwardly.

"And I like you! I don't want you getting hurt. So you've got to just keep out of this for now and not get too involved. Please...I would much rather Tamama and Keroro die than you being here with the risk of being hurt." Kululu begged.

"Thanks." Tamama said sarcastically.

"Insulting us isn't a very romantic thing to do-" Keroro tried to point out. But Kululu was not listening. He was still scolding.

This time he was cradling Mois's face in his hands instead of pinching her cheeks as if hoping that would make her listen to him and know how serious the situation was. "I wanted to keep you away from this and most of the keronians. I don't want them threatening you or anything."

Angol Mois looked like she felt guilty that she was being used as leverage to keep Kululu there. She nodded a little bit.

"And anyway a war is no place for you or our growing child!" Kululu just continued making points not being as thankful to see her as Keroro. "And worse—if you do manage to win this war, there's the risk that Keron could keep you here and prisoner to win more wars for them. That's the kind of people they are. They'd be like "oh you had a half-keronian child so you're basically a citizen by that logic and you have to help" Kululu made up a bad quote, "They'd keep you prisoner here just like they're doing to Keroro. And they'd use me and our kid to hurt you if you even give them the slightest idea that you could be an asset to them."

Angol Mois looked scared for a moment as Kululu continued making points, she then glanced at Keroro. "Uncle's a prisoner-?" She looked confused.

Keroro was confused to. But the confusion was replaced quickly with disappointment. _But...Mois was going to solve everything for us. We need her Kululu._

"Never mind that." Kululu quickly dismissed as if Mois wasn't getting the whole picture. "Will you stay out of the field so that you don't get hurt? Please. You need to avoid this place."

Mois looked worried for a moment, but finally shook her head not just following Kululu's requests. "No!" She finally said.

"B-but...You're pregnant." Kululu pointed out, "You can't be here."

"It's not like I'm the one solely responsible for me being pregnant." Mois pointed out slightly snarkily, "It takes two, Kululu."

Kululu was silent.

"And I'm not abandoning you to protect myself! What would I do if you got hurt too? My intentions aren't bad, Kululu, you've got to understand that! I love you and if you have to be here I'll be here too." Angol Mois told him.

 _Good job! Don't get yourself kicked out when we need you so badly!_ Keroro cheered to himself.

Kululu tried to argue with her more, but she just wouldn't listen to him. He looked really angry at just how stubborn she was, but it was clear to Tamama and Keroro that more than anything Kululu was afraid. He was shaking and his face was growing paler and paler as he sweat at the idea of her joining them on the field.

"Please...Can't you understand it's not just your life that you're putting in danger by being here?" Kululu tried to get her to see things.

"I know." She replied, "But...You would have died if I wasn't here." She pointed out.

Kululu was silent. He knew.

* * *

They all went back to the base despite the constant arguing on the way there. Keroro would try to pipe in every now and then to be on Angol Mois's side just because he wanted her to join them. Tamama would play devil's advocate and try to get her off the field.

"Actually I'm not quite sure where I want her." Tamama finally decided, "Kululu's right that she'll probably die on the field and that's a nice thought but then she'd be with us. Ick."

Angol Mois tried to ignore his constant harassment.

Tamama tried to now walk in between Angol Mois and Kululu just to bug Mois as he had been bugged by her for so many years. He still seemed clearly awkward around Keroro but his focus was now completely on Mois.

Keroro wondered if he should be thankful or feel sorry for poor Mois. He decided to try to make her feel a little better. "Well I don't know about what Tamama or Kululu is saying but I'm happy to see you, Mois. I'm glad that you saved us!"

Mois smiled, almost proud. "Thank you!" She really did appreciate Keroro complimenting her.

Keroro glanced at Tamama for a moment. _Does Tamama ever express jealousy?_ He wondered. _Maybe I should try to make Tamama a little jealous._ He knew if Tamama did ever feel jealousy right now towards Mois would be a good bet. He was paying attention to her every move after all.

"I'm also really thankful for you just being here and still having a strong bond with me despite the fact that I wasn't the Keroro who raised you." Keroro boasted, "You really were a person that I knew only on Pekopon after all. I mean, our real memories and experiences were fully on Pekopon. That's when you got to know me." _There that ought to help Tamama snap out of his anger towards me. If Mois can forgive me and focus on the me only on Pekopon and she knew me way longer than Tamama, Tamama should too._

Angol Mois stopped walking for a moment. "Only knew me on Pekopon? ….Keroro who didn't raise me?" Her voice was filled with confusion.

Kululu looked like he was stepping back from what was inevitably about to happen.

"Kululu what is he talking about? Uncle was my Uncle. Uncle IS Uncle." Angol Mois insisted and pointed out.

Keroro's eyes widened as he realized things were about to explode in his face and he had made a mistake. "You didn't tell her?" He asked Kululu desperately, "You've had plenty of time to! Did you just forget to mention the fact that I'm a clone?"

Angol Mois's face contorted in even stronger confusion.

"We...We were busy talking about more important things to us and trying to figure out ways to keep her health in pique condition." Kululu admitted, "That and I…." He rubbed his arm, "I kind of thought it was best if you told her the truth yourself. It was your issue and it was up to you to tell her. And I thought it would be healthier for her if she heard it from you." His voice was a little quiet as if he knew exactly how Angol Mois would react to the news. It didn't sound like it would be a positive reaction as well.

Angol Mois looked a little annoyed, "Is...Is there something you've been keeping from me, Kululu? What is this that I don't know?"

Kululu sighed. Angol Mois had now directly asked him and so he couldn't avoid the question. It looked like despite his wishes Keroro wasn't going to tell her any more of the truth. He was just frozen to the spot as if he was terrified of the same thing that had happened to Giroro and Tamama happening to Mois.

"The Keroro before you is a clone of many other Keroro's." Kululu finally explained. "He's the clone who lived through the Pekopon invasion. It turns out they've been cloning the original Keroro for generations because they're trying to resurrect their long dead God which is also Keroro- the original."

"S-so that means...This Un-Keroro..." Mois looked down, "B-but...What about the previous Keroro's? Where did they go?"

"He has some fake memories of their lives." Kululu explained, "But they all died because his cloning dna is unstable."

Mois looked shocked. She dropped to the ground as she just stared at Keroro.

"Is...Is she going to be okay?" Keroro asked glancing at Kululu. _No. I shouldn't be asking that._ He had to have faith in Mois. She was kind. She had spent a lot of time with him on Pekopon. She got to know him a lot better than before. "It's all right, Mois. I'm still the same Keroro that you knew on Pekopon-"

Angol Mois looked at him, and Keroro knew instantly she was angry. "Of course you are. But you don't understand, what I wanted was for you to be my Uncle. Not the Keroro of Pekopon."

 _It's the same as Tamama. He wanted me to be his hero. She wanted me to be her Uncle._ "I...I might not be that guy or remember his life very much, but...We got to know each other. We spent time together, the Keroro of Pekopon was much more important in your life than the other Keroro, right?"

Angol Mois stood up and glared at him. "What do you meant we spent time together? No! You asked me to do things for you, like your job, chores, things like that! I did your every command trying to get you to like me! We didn't get to know each other really at all! I bet you don't even really know what my favorite hobby is." Angol Mois pointed out.

Keroro winced. His memory had never been that good. "Uhhh….L-listening to me?" He guessed. She had always more of a listener than a talker.

"It's studying fault lines! I told that to everybody! On Pekopon! And you don't even remember." Angol Mois despaired. "Look, if you want to try to make me like you for just your clone's life you should have actually tried to form any sort of connection with me. But you didn't. And I wasted parts of my life chasing after your memory that would never come back. I...I did so much pointless work for you. I didn't even really like it!" She sounded like she was mostly mad at herself for being so stupid.

 _I mean she's kinda right...And her blowing up at how much she listened to my every order is long over-due, but...I want her to say something like it's okay I'm a clone. But..._ It wasn't going to happen. Keroro knew that. To Mois Keroro was just the clone who she had pointlessly worked for.

"I just wanted you to like me! To acknowledge me! To remember that you had been there in my life for a long time when I was a child. But...That never would happen. I was chasing the memory of a different Keroro that doesn't even exist anymore." Angol Mois realized. "How can someone feel affection for me and remember that I exist when they're dead?"

"Welcome to my world." Tamama replied, actually agreeing with Mois.

 _No! This isn't what I wanted._ Keroro thought.

"You're stories much creepier though considering your Keroro raised you as a child." Tamama shrugged. He paused, thinking for a moment. "So...Wait...When you were in love with him you didn't really love anything about his personality? Like no parts of his personality at all?" Tamama snorted. She was after all previously chasing after Keroro solely because he had raised her. "Wow, that's way more shallow than me. At least there were parts of Keroro that I shoved my fantasy ideals on."

"I...I really wanted his acceptance and affection. I mean, he didn't even remember me until I reminded him who I was when I came to Pekopon!" Mois sighed.

Keroro realized that she might not have gotten as much of either of those things from her version of Keroro. Maybe that was why she sought out so much of a remedy through him. "I-I might not have remembered you very much except when it was convenient, but I was still a person on Pekopon. I was still alive and thinking we must have had some mutually fun times, right?" He asked desperately.

Angol Mois just looked at him like he was a smudge on a lens. She shook her head. "You used me even though you had barely any memory of me. I don't care if you're a clone, or a god, it's taken me too long for me to realize our relationship is not positive. You had no connection to me and I shouldn't have held affections for you based on our shared past. This version of you- the one that is nothing to me, is dead to me." She said coldly.

And with that she walked away, not paying any more attention to Keroro.

Keroro's eyes were wide open as he watched her go, he felt tears well up even though he was used to this whole event. _It's happened again. I...I thought she would be different. To me I knew Mois just about as much as I knew Natsumi. I thought...I thought she'd act like Natsumi. Like family._ He felt himself crying. He couldn't imagine another person casting him aside, least of all Mois. "Did you know this would happen?" He asked Kululu.

Kululu nodded. "I had some guesses. I mean even when we were dating she still held some affection for you, desperate to get your recognition. The affection was in a familial sense, which honestly I think she got quite confused about during your first meeting on pekopon. Thought the only way to get you to remember her was to date you or something." Kululu sounded still a little bit reluctant to think about that.

 _She wanted to date me?_ Keroro was a little weirded out.

"Once she knew all of what she did was for literally nothing she broke down. I think she feels mostly mad at herself for wasting so much of her time and for one thing not destroying Pekopon since you were the one continuously stopping her. I mean good things came out of it too, but...I think she just feels a little helpless. Which is why I thought it would have been healthier for you and her to talk about it and reach a conclusion than me just telling her. Didn't go quite as healthily as I wanted though." Kululu muttered. Still he looked a little proud of Mois casting aside Keroro, like he had wanted it in a way. Clone or not, he wanted the two separate. Kululu hurried after her as Keroro continued crying.

Tamama watched them go. _She feels the same betrayal I feel._ Tamama realized. He didn't like relating to that woman, but he knew what she was feeling. There was a sense of relief when she cut Keroro off, like he was finally free of the premise of her and Keroro getting together.

Still when Tamama thought about it, he realized how little he actually had to worry about Mois. In reality her love had been the sad desperate love of a probably lonely child not quite understanding why someone who had raised them couldn't remember them. She didn't understand why something that had changed her life was literally nothing to Keroro.

She hadn't learned anything about the Keroro on Pekopon. She hadn't grown up and tried to bond with him as equals. Tamama however, had played with him. They had talked together as friends.

 _I had a lot more connections with Keroro than she did. I had a lot more things I genuinely liked about him._ He glanced over at Keroro. Did he genuinely still like this Keroro?

He knew the answer to that. It was exactly as Giroro said. He had learned more about Keroro on Pekopon than during their initial meeting. He had started falling in love with him all over again.

 _I loved him more than she did. That's why it always infuriated me that she was able to express her love more easily because she was a girl. Because I loved him so much more than she did. I worked so much harder to be by his side. I just loved him so much._ Tamama remembered.

The heartache that came along with thinking about Keroro was happening to him again. His heart was aching wondering if he had screwed up their friendship.

They might never have a relationship, but would Keroro ever be his friend again? Tamama didn't know.

* * *

Keroro sat by a window, looking out of it. His eyes were still red and puffy from the Angol Mois experience. He couldn't blame all of it on him being a clone though. He hadn't really made as much of an effort to be her friend as anyone else. Sure he had tried to be nice a few times because he knew she was like a niece or something to him, but he had never really gotten to know her.

Seeing her change, actually fall in love with Kululu, have interests outside of Keroro, all of those had been shocking to him because he in actuality had never really tried that hard to get to know Angol Mois.

He saw Kululu passing through the hall briefly, writing something on a notepad and angrily muttering to himself.

"What...What are you writing?" Keroro asked, hoping that maybe having some conversation with someone else would make him feel better. Kululu didn't feel as antagonistic as the rest of everyone else. He only felt the normal amount of antagonism that was associated with Kululu.

"Reasons Mois should stay off of the battlefield." Kululu replied. "I was hoping she might understand if it was in writing."

Keroro watched him furiously scribble. _You know..._ He realized. _I haven't asked Kululu if he feels betrayed by what I am and being a clone. Dororo and Giroro had their own thoughts on the matter._ He didn't think he knew Kululu before Pekopon but he could be wrong. Perhaps he had some secret seduction of Kululu like he had with Tamama?

"Kululu, umm...I have to ask you something about the past..." Keroro tried to start a conversation with him.

Kululu glanced up. "What is it?"

"Well..." _Now I'm worried. How do I ask if he was seduced by a past me too?_ "Do you feel betrayed by me being a clone? You know like Tamama and Mois? Did...Did a past version of me have a special connection to you too?"

"Ku, ku, ku. That's a good one! Do I feel betrayed because you aren't like a past version of yourself?" Kululu repeated. "I never felt any connection to a past Keroro-" He froze and stopped talking. _That's not exactly true._ He realized.

Keroro smiled, not noticing the pause. "That's great! So you're another something I only knew on Pekopon! So our relationship is completely the same and doesn't change at all?" That was a relief.

It made Keroro happy. It made him bond a little with Kululu.

Kululu rubbed the back of his head. "That...That...Isn't exactly true...I did know another you." He awkwardly confessed.

Keroro looked worried. He didn't remember interacting with Kululu. "Who? When?"

"Don't look so worried. We didn't do anything. You didn't know me." Kululu told him quickly, "But..I watched you during the Keron Star competition. And I suppose one could say that was a connection to your past. I...I felt impressed by you during that competition. Interesting. I wanted to meet you and learn more about you." Kululu looked very hesitant to admit all this.

"The Keron Star competition?" Keroro asked touching his star. He remembered that. It had been a big deal, on all Keron televisions. It had been very hard but he had managed to win over all competitors. It wasn't that wild to believe that even Kululu had been impressed. _But that was another me. Another me achieved that victory. It belongs to him. Does Kululu feel lied to that I wasn't as cool as the televisions made me out to be?_

 _No, he would have felt and known that as soon as he met me. He probably already felt that betrayal then._ Keroro smiled to himself. Kululu was like that, observant. And he very easily decided that he didn't like people. There was no reason for Kululu to feel betrayed a second time. He would have already known Keroro was an idiot on Pekopon.

"Looking back on it with the new knowledge I have obtained about your existence, it's clear the Keron star competition was a charade." Kululu observed. "It was created for publicity for you to win. Things were rigged in your favor in the beginning for you to officially gain the Keron Star. Bet throughout generations Keroro's have won that thing 'coincidentally' each time. We never were taught about the past victors in schools after all."

Keroro hadn't really thought about how the history lessons had felt like they lacked fine-pointed details in Keron schools. He had always just assumed that they were only taught military facts and obedience because they were a mostly military state.

"An average keronian like Giroro, Dororo or even me couldn't have won. It was impossible for anyone else to win. But it was made to look like a competition." Kululu realized. "It was biased towards you the entire time."

"But why? Because they wanted me to look the part of Keroro with the Keron Star? Because the God deserves the Keron star?" Keroro asked, "But loads of other people have used the star's power way better than me! Giroro's cat for one!"

Kululu shook his head. "I think it was meant to be yours and on you. Sure, the cat could use it somewhat to control people's minds and get them to agree with her, but you cap it's power. It's not being used constantly with you which is miraculous. And you can control it on will to use an immense amount of power at a time!" Kululu pointed out. "Capping it's power is actually the most impressive thing. That should be impossible, but yet you're somehow able to do it. I really should have seen this god stuff before."

"So you think it takes a god to fully control?" Keroro was doubtful.

"Would make sense why the higher ups don't have their own Keron stars. I never see anyone else wearing them despite it's power being boasted about. They can't use them properly. I mean Garuru's even said something like that before as an excuse for cloning you. Because your DNA suits the Keron star and can unlock it's potential." Kululu pointed out.

"I...I never thought about it that way." Keroro admitted. He would have never thought his lack of charisma with the Keron star would have been a power all on it's own. That it was capping and conserving power. Kululu was certainly bringing up new interesting things that he hadn't ever thought about.

"Um...Kululu?" Keroro looked at him, "Is...Is it weird to you that I'm a clone?" He finally asked. Everybody else thought it was weird.

Kululu shrugged. "Not really. I've seen a lot of weird things in my life. I've brought objects to life. I've dyed my own skin accidentally. Because of a mistake in a science experiment my siblings now randomly change colors? I've seen lots of weird things." Kululu repeated.

"But...I'm not real. I've got fake emotions, fake memories..." Keroro tried to get more of an answer then 'meh'.

"If I was older than you and nicer to my co-workers I bet I would have been on the cloning Keroro project." Kululu replied. "I might have even suggested it if I had been there back at the start. I can see the merits in it after all."

"Merits?" Keroro asked.

"The planet needs a God, or the people believe that the planet needs a God. The planet needs you. But a god shouldn't die, it's unnatural. If...If we as a people can bring a God back to life it means we ourselves are stronger than a God. The God becomes unnecessary from our own actions and becomes just a tool to better ourselves. So I can see the merits in resurrecting a God. It makes the race stronger." Kululu explained. "If you bring a God back to life you can control him. That would be any scientists dream to control a God. To have them all to yourselves to reveal the mysteries of the universe. It would be my dream too."

Keroro just grimaced, completely creeped out. "I'm glad you weren't alive back then and cloning me." He shivered. That sounded real creepy!

"I really should have suspected that you were a God and a clone." Kululu sighed, "I usually figure things out. And there were so many hints, your phenomenal luck, your clone data, how Keron was absolutely obsessed with you and you could really do very little wrong. But I was blinded."

"Is it because you wear glasses?" Keroro asked. "Did your glasses blind you?"

Kululu frowned. That was such a stupid reason. But he wasn't going to laugh and call Keroro an idiot. He would do that privately. "No. Jealousy blinded me." He admitted.

"J-jealousy?" Keroro asked. "Wait...You were jealous of me? Me?" He blinked and pointed at Kululu, "You? Jealous?" But Kululu always sounded so prideful. So boastful. Like he thought he was better than everyone. Especially his idiot platoon member.

Kululu sighed and sat down. He didn't look proud of his past thoughts. "I...I wanted to be like you, Keroro. At one time. You...You were liked by people. You were charismatic. You had friends no matter how many stupid mistakes you made. You were the leader. It was everything I didn't have and wanted." He paused and thought for a moment. "If...If during my jealous phase I learned that you were a God, something that I could never become, I would have felt like I would never be able to achieve what you did. I would have instantly felt like things were hopeless and impossible for me. I couldn't mentally compete with you, or dream for better." Kululu paused again, "As long as you were mortal I could make fun of you. I could hate you. I could be jealous of you. I could someday hope that things would magically change for either of us, either my life would get better or you would be brought down."

"Misery loves company, huh?" Keroro grimaced. He didn't really want to know that Kululu had secretly hated him, although he was flattered that Kululu of all people had been jealous of him.

"Yeah. I could pull pranks on you to bring you down. I could start gossip about you, I could tell Mois super awful things about you and try to sabotage you two by continuously pointing out to Tamama when you two were hanging out together. It was hilarious. But I wouldn't have done any of it if you were a god. I wouldn't have seen any point to it because you would have overcome it." Kululu frowned.

Keroro just sweat dropped in the background. _This conversation isn't really making me feel better._ Honestly he didn't know how to feel about it. He was glad Kululu was talking to him and being honest and was no longer mad, but man had Kululu disliked him.

Kululu perked up and smirked. "But geez! I was a pretty cool guy it turns out. Instead of just being jealous of some normal incompetent platoon leader I was jealous of the God of our planet who created all Kerons." He grinned. "And not only that I managed to win over the girl of my dreams over that God. Ku, ku, ku! I'm way cooler than you." Kululu boasted.

 _That's the Kululu I know._ Keroro sighed. Maybe it would have been better if Kululu was still jealous of him, then he could feel a little better about himself. "I'm glad you're over your jealousy."

Kululu just laughed.

 _Kululu sounded like during this he was more focused on the fact that I'm god instead of a clone._ That honestly made sense. It should have been what everyone was focused on but wasn't. Keroro watched Kululu laugh. He was glad Kululu was happy although he didn't appreciate the insults.

He thought for a moment about what Kululu had said. Kululu had implied that one of the reasons he was jealous of Keroro was that Keroro had the affection of the same person Kululu liked. He hadn't said it as much as the other stuff out right, but it was pretty clear. _That would be Mois, right? She...She liked me or something back on Pekopon._ That was still wild to think about to Keroro.

Keroro wondered about Mois's love for him on Pekopon. It was similar in fashion to Tamama's love, he imagined. After all they had both fallen in love with a version of Keroro they had met in their pasts. _I wonder if she has any ideas about how to get Tamama's love back._ As someone who was experiencing the same thing Tamama felt, Mois must have some ideas.

She wasn't like Giroro or Dororo. She was no childhood friend. Instead she was in the same boat emotion wise as Tamama. So Mois was his only key to understanding Tamama's emotions.

He left Kululu just laughing smugly, determined to find and talk to Mois. She was the only one who could advise him and knew what to do.

He just hoped she would talk to him.

* * *

Keroro tried to approach Angol Mois, who was now no longer in her room. She apparently wanted to know more about the battlefield and was looking over maps instead of keeping cooped up.

Once she saw Keroro approaching she froze and glared at him.

"I...Uhh heard about how you felt on Pekopon." Keroro briefly said, "I...I didn't know you previously had feelings for me. I didn't know that that was the kind of attention you were trying to get."

"Yes, well you weren't the most observant." Mois replied. "If you're going to grab something do it quickly because I don't really want to talk to you. Especially about THAT."

Keroro ignored her request, "Was Tamama ever fighting with you?" Keroro perked up. "I mean...Over my attention. He apparently liked me too, you know. And I was wondering if you two ever had discussions about me." _It would have been really cool if they were fighting over me._

Mois just sighed. This was beyond pathetic. She rolled up the map. "I don't really want to talk to you, especially about how much Tamama disliked me. I almost got killed by him! You could say, do not forgive and forget?" She was still not over it.

"You...You don't like Tamama?" Keroro had always thought they got along. "I wish you could talk about that incident with the flyians, I'm sure Tamama meant no real harm-"

"I don't want to think anymore about you OR Tamama." Angol Mois repeated, "I'm long over you and you both took way too many years from my life. You from continuously using me and Tamama from so much harassment." She paused. "I guess in the way of making me miserable you're perfect together!" She looked very mad.

Keroro put his hands up as if he had come to cause no harm and was surrendering. He didn't want her to be mad at him. "Listen...Mois...I know you're mad but I really could use your help. I want your help." Keroro tried to help her.

"I've heard that before." Mois hissed. "Many, many times. 'Oh Mois, do this. Oh Mois could you finish all this paperwork for my invasion?' My feelings are never taken into account. I'm sick of being such a pushover. I'm sick of being nothing."

"You're...You're not nothing to me." Keroro tried to reassure her, "I really tried to be your Uncle and kind to you on Pekopon. I just thought family members helped each other and you always seemed so willing to do so much." He really had no idea that it was hurting Mois, "I remember you being sad a few times over not destroying the planet and your father being mad. I would sit on a swing with you and we'd talk. Remember that? I really did try. And that was the me on Pekopon." Keroro said desperately.

Mois looked reluctant to accept this answer, but she did look like she was thinking.

"And did you really want me to be the same as my past self? I may not remember much of your childhood, but I know what some of my clones were like. They were either very professional, heroic and kind or very cruel. And I worry you got one of the crueler ones and I treated you closer to the way I treated Dororo." He told her. He could only remember bits and flashes but it felt wrong. He knew for a fact that some of Mois's stories about him were false. They brimmed with just over-the-top delusion. It also explained why her self-esteem was so dependent upon him. He didn't really like thinking about it.

Mois looked sad for a moment, her anger drifting away. "Back...Back on Pekopon I desperately craved your love." She admitted, "It was the top form of affection and appreciation that I had heard about and I desperately needed that from you. So I...I decided that it must have been romantic love I craved. Because there was no way you could ignore me if I was your girlfriend."

Keroro was quiet. He knew she would have never been his girlfriend.

"I don't know what ever hurt me most. The way you treated me in childhood, how much you used me on Pekopon or the fact that you just forgot about me until I popped up again in your life when I thought so much about you." Mois paused, "I realize that wasn't your fault now. You weren't the same person and couldn't remember my existence until I was there in front of you. But it still hurt a lot and shaped how I acted on Pekopon."

Keroro nodded. She sounded like she was slowly letting her anger slip away, like she was realizing it wasn't all the Keroro's in front of her fault. She also seemed to realize that she was very mad at herself to for how she acted.

It was time to ask his questions. It was time to get the information he came for and so desperately sought now that she was kind of just reflecting on her life. "If you ignored our past together, your childhood with me, and how you're with Kululu now how would I make you fall in love with me again?" Keroro asked. "If you just focused on the now and our past on Pekopon how could I make you feel love for me again?" He finally asked.

Whatever advice Mois gave he could use for his situation with Tamama. She was the only one who could walk in Tamama's metaphorical shoes. And it wasn't like he really was going to make her fall in love with him. She had to know that since she was with Kululu and pregnant with his kid.

Angol Mois however did not see that this was a hypothetical question. She immediately backed away, her eyes widening. "Kululu and I are very happy together!" She declared, "I would never cheat on him!"

"And that's why I said if he wasn't in the picture-" Keroro tried to repeat.

She rushed towards the door. "I better tell Kululu that you were trying to hit on me. He's not going to be happy at all."

"AUGH!" Keroro panicked and quickly jumped in front of her. He could see his life flashing before his eyes- all of it. If Kululu thought he was hitting on Mois him being a god would not protect him. "It was all hypothetical!" He told her quickly, "I was asking hypothetically!"

Mois did not seem convinced and tried to move past him.

"I'm in a very similar situation with Tamama, you see! He was also in love with a past me and that's why he was pursuing me on Pekopon." Keroro told her. "I want to get Tamama to love me! Not you! I thought you might be able to provide some advice since you understand better how he's feeling than me."

"You...You want to get Tamama to love you?" Angol Mois asked, a little confused.

"Y-yeah." Keroro tried not to blush. He could trust Mois, he could talk to her honestly. "I want to c-confess my own feelings, but I'm worried it won't go well because he...uhh currently hates me."

Mois stopped for a moment to just look at him. _Does he not realize the thing I want to do least in the world is play love counselor for him and Tamama?_ She really didn't want to talk about Tamama or help Keroro. She kinda disliked both of them right now. Still, she was a little curious over this new realization that Keroro liked Tamama since she had never seen that. "If you liked Tamama so much why did you never express interest for him when you were on Pekopon and he was much more interested?"

Keroro looked down. He felt weak. "I...I was afraid of liking Tamama." He admitted. "So...I didn't really ever feel the need to express interest in him. I didn't even really know I liked him!" He blushed.

Keroro hung his head in somewhat shame. He tried to laugh and make fun of himself. "I really should have been focused and questioning other things on Pekopon like the weirdness of my past and my lack of memories at some points. I should have been focused on that but I never was. I should have been questioning things like my weird phenomenal luck that seemed almost magical and legendary. But I never did." Keroro laughed. "Instead oddly enough all my questions and focus went back to the exact same questions. All my doubt wasn't around 'am I a clone? How old am I? Who am I?' instead my doubt and questions always seemed to revolve around my sexuality." Keroro wanted it to be funny in a way but he just felt sad.

"I...I guess because of how homophobic Keron seems to be, I really didn't want to think about the fact that I liked boys. I tried to ignore it. But now I gotta think about it and confront it because of all the danger I'm facing and the eventual loss of my humanity." Keroro frowned. "Pretty sure I've been gay in each of my lives though, so jokes on how homophobic Keron is. Your God's gay."

Keroro started just laughing and laughing. He couldn't believe it! He remembered just how homophobic Keron had been. The atmosphere, small lines from the demon sergeant and every person in power around him, the type of stuff that other people might brush off but a gay person would remember and focus on. He knew it all stemmed from the desire to produce as many children as possible to fill the military with, but it had still been a horrible atmosphere. And yet Keron's god, the god that created all of Keron and the keronians, had been gay. He was gay. _Screw them! I can do and feel what I want. I'm a God._ It was almost funny in some sort of way. Ironic.

He then realized that Mois had been the first person that he had told he was gay too. Perhaps it was because he was just used to her being a kind and quiet listener, someone he could tell his problems to. Maybe it was because she had loved him in the past. He didn't know, but he felt like he was finally comfortable enough to say that he was gay. Like he had to tell someone.

Mois was still mad at Keroro, and she certainly didn't want to be info dumped about his romantic drama, but she did try her best to be supportive. She knew getting this sort of thing out into the air and confronting it was pretty hard. So she crouched down to his height and put her hand on his head to pat it. "It's okay." She reassured.

Keroro smiled. Did this mean Mois was starting to forgive him? He didn't know. But he felt better from just someone saying it was okay.

"If...If I had to give advice on your situation..." Mois finally said, advice was something she was reluctant to give but she wanted to support Keroro somewhat. He had told her something that must have been hard for him. "I would say to just confess. Don't beat around the bush. Months of trying to hide your feelings won't help anything. It could cause unnecessary miscommunication and just make you both miserable." Angol Mois looked like she was thinking about something specific as if she was talking about her own life.

Keroro wondered if that was what had happened between her and Kululu. It sounded like Kululu to unnecessarily hide his feelings when Mois would have happily dated him or something.

 _Mois would be the sort of person to suggest going the honest route and just telling someone how you feel._ Keroro sighed. That was so predictably Mois.

He sighed. Mois was probably right. He didn't have time to try to desperately seduce Tamama. He had to just be honest about how he felt. "Okay. I'll do it. I'll do honesty." He agreed.

Mois let him go past her so she didn't have to talk to him.

Keroro headed to Tamama's room

* * *

Tamama was moping in his room. He was moping about a lot of things.

 _That woman's around again. Ugh. She's going to be so perfect and everybody's going to be complimenting her and they'll love her for fixing all our problems. Mr. Sergeant will instantly fall in love with her, she'll forgive him because she isn't petty and terrible like me and then they'll get together because she'd obviously choose him over Kululu._ Tamama thought.

Tamama lay on his bed as his thoughts drifted from Mois, to Mois and Keroro, and finally to Keroro.

He wasn't as mad anymore. He still loved Keroro. He should have known that he would always feel stuck in love with Keroro. _I continued to fall in love with Keroro on Pekopon. I know that. I learned that through Giroro's speech._ Tamama remembered.

But it wasn't just that. He loved all the Keroro's. He remembered after the Keroro who saved him had left Tamama had watched the news about Keroro, all the Keroro's on TV. He had loved each and every one of them, liking each one for a different property.

They were all 'Keroro'. In a way. And Keroro was all of them and none of them. He held their memories in his heart, but he made different choices. He was himself, but they lived on through him, including Tamama's Keroro.

Keroro was no clone, not really, he was just a bundle of all the Keroro's in existence. A god could have multiple different dreams, thoughts and feelings after all. And Keroro had all of that.

 _I shouldn't have been so hard on him. He didn't lie to me. He never used me. He never hurt me. I should have been there for him when he was discovering all of this. He hurt so much._ He had promised he would be there to support Keroro, but he had just been so shocked by his own world shaking so much and views of Keroro that he had left.

He was a bad friend and didn't deserve Keroro. He knew that. So he cried over what he lost.

There was a loud knocking on Tamama's door. _Kululu?_ Tamama wondered. He couldn't imagine why Kululu would want to see him but it was highly unlikely it was Mois or Keroro.

Still he opened the door and there Keroro stood. Tamama tried not to be shocked that Keroro had chosen to visit him. He hadn't even worked up the courage yet to apologize to him and beg his forgiveness. _Is he here to tell me he doesn't need my forgiveness? That he doesn't need me?_ He deserved that, but still he didn't think Keroro was that petty. It didn't sound like him.

Keroro looked desperate. He threw himself to the ground. "I'm so so sorry!" Keroro apologized.

Tamama's eyes widened. _He...He came to apologize to me instead of the other-way around._ He realized. That was just like the Keroro he knew. Keroro desperately tried to apologize to his friends when he thought he wronged them.

Keroro had done nothing wrong, really Tamama should be apologizing, but Keroro was still here. Tamama wanted to tell him it was okay and help him off the ground, but Keroro just kept desperately babbling.

"I'm really sorry for the whole clone thing and for not being the Keroro you want me to be! I'm so sorry for replacing him, and being a clone!" Keroro apologized.

"It- I-it's okay." Tamama said shakily. The more Keroro spoke and made it sound made Tamama truly realize how blameless he was. "You didn't do anything. It wasn't your choice. You didn't know." He had just been confused and mad for no reason.

"It's not okay! It's making you sad. It's making you hate me. And I can't bare to have you feel either of those things. I can't bare that you're not around anymore and that you hate me. You're super important to me. But I was being my selfish normal self not paying attention to things until they leave me. I should have realized how important you were when you liked me better. I should have paid more attention to you back on Pekopon." Keroro apologized.

Tamama helped him up. "It's...It's really okay. You don't have to apologize. It wasn't really your fault. I know you're hurting a lot more than me. I'm...I'm sorry for being so mad at you for something you couldn't help."

Keroro looked relieved. He smiled.

"I understand now that the Keroro before me is my friend." He declared, "You're the one on Pekopon I got to know. You were always someone I had lots of fun with. You're my true friend."

Keroro looked gleeful at those words. He covered his mouth to hide his smile, because he had no idea things were going to go this well. _Tamama's forgiving me so quickly! And he says that I'm his true friend! Me! Not another me! And he's apologizing for being mad._

"I...I was just so stupid and selfish. I really wanted my fantasy to be a reality. My world and image of myself and you was so built around this fantasy and this idea that you were rescuing me. I romanticized you something fierce. I was basically as bad as those Keron military guys only seeing you as some sort of god. I was romanticizing you into a hero. But that Keroro no longer exists. He's dead just like their god." Tamama told him, "My Keroro eventually became so over-the-top he was imaginary. I was basically doing the same as that woman. I was just as bad as her!" Tamama didn't look happy to admit it but felt like he needed to say it. "But you're not that. You have lots and lots of faults-"

 _Thanks._ Keroro thought, but he smiled. That was so like Tamama to call him out on his not so great qualities. It was one of the things he liked so much about him. How blunt he was.

"And those faults make you real. So very real. Despite everyone saying you're a god now, you've always been very real and down to earth to me. You're my Keroro. It shouldn't- It doesn't matter that you're a clone." Tamama told him.

Keroro was touched. "Awww….Thanks." Nobody had made his faults sound so good. But he was glad to have them. His insecurities and problems, including his incompetence and laziness made him mortal. He knew he'd lose it eventually but he liked it right now.

Tamama sniffled. "I'm sorry for being so very mean to you! WAHH!" He started crying. "What if you never forgive me?"

Keroro opened up his arms and let Tamama run into them. He held him tightly and pat his back. "I forgive you. I'm just happy to have you by my side."

Tamama cried and cried but held Keroro closer. _Hehehe. The more I cry the more he holds me._ Sure he did feel sad for real and he felt bad, but it was nice to have Keroro hold him to.

He did still love Keroro. It was just doubtful that Keroro would ever like him. Especially with what he had pulled. He had made so many mistakes, done so many bad things. Why would Keroro ever like him?

Keroro eventually pulled away briefly from Tamama after he had calmed down. "T-there...There was another reason I came here." He confessed. "I mean I did come here to apologize and make up but there was something else I needed to talk to you about."

"Is it that you love that woman? Because if it is I want you out and I don't want to hear it." Tamama decided.

"No!" Keroro shook his head. He looked extremely nervous and embarrassed.

"Oh. Then if it's not something really important can we still be hugging for whatever discussion you have? I liked that." Tamama decided.

Keroro just blushed harder. "I...I think it would be better if we weren't hugging for this." _Geez, I've never really done this before._ He was fumbling. And Tamama was making this so hard by just being his cute self wanting attention constantly. "Listen, I know...I know this might not be the right time because we're in the middle of a war and all, but I d-don't...I don't know when I'll find another time." Keroro was deep pink.

Tamama looked up. It was rare to see Keroro so embarrassed. "Okay. What is it?"

"W-well..It's umm..You s-see the fact is..Ugh..Why does this have to be so hard? I gotta just be honest...A-and..." Keroro was just all stuttery and pink, but he kept grabbing Tamama's hand dropping it like he was in a panic over what he had just done and then grabbing Tamama's hand again.

It was very fumbly, awkward, and embarrassing. Tamama kind of wanted to laugh.

 _It almost sounds like he's trying to say a love confession or something with how embarrassed he is._ Tamama thought to himself. _But that's not right. He doesn't like me. And every other time I thought we were in a romantic atmosphere I was wrong._ He frowned. _So...Despite what things feel like right now I've got to keep my enthusiasm down. Got to crush the hope before he can!_ It was probably something completely different than he was thinking of. Something stupid and something that probably had to do with anime or gundam models.

"T-tamama." Keroro grabbed his hands again, "I...Ummm...I l-love..." He stopped himself and paused. He then laughed, "You know what? I can't say it. It's...It's wrong of me to try to push you into anything. Uhhh ignore what I was saying. Just, get some rest or something. I should go." He turned around.

Tamama's eyes widened. _Oh my god! It was a love confession he was trying to say! He was trying to say something romantic to me, wasn't he?_ Well, no way was Tamama going to let Keroro chicken out.

He grabbed onto Keroro's arms and gripped on tightly so Keroro could not run away. "You're not leaving until you tell me what it is!" He picked up Keroro and started shaking him. "If it's what I think it is I've waited years for this! So hurry up and say it! You are not chickening out of this atmosphere, Keroro!"

Keroro blushed yet again, but he was starting to get that Tamama was not as dense as him and knew what he was getting at. It was hard to talk from the shaking, but it made him breathless enough to shout it. "I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU!"

Tamama stopped shaking Keroro. He didn't say anything. He just smiled blissfully to himself and sighed dreamily. _It's like some dream. It's actually happening._ Even though he had been fighting with Keroro, Keroro still loved him. He had fallen in love with him. He returned his feelings. He had realized that Tamama was there for him.

"Uhhh...Tamama? You just stopped talking there." Keroro was wondering what was going through Tamama's head.

"I'm just so happy..." Tamama smiled, "I'm so happy that you finally love me. I've wanted you to love me for so long." He didn't care that Keroro was a god. It meant nothing compared to Keroro's love.

"I...I started falling in love with you on Pekopon. I guess….I guess I didn't know how important it was that you were always by my side and were always being my friend." Keroro explained, "You're just so cute, and..." He was starting to sound less embarrassed. His tone dropped to more sad, "It's okay if you no longer love me. But I want to be by your side. As your friend or whatever you want." Keroro told him.

Tamama looked up. _Why would I be just his friend when we could be banging?_ He thought to himself. He wasn't going to say that out loud though. That might be too much for Keroro at the current moment.

"B-but.." Keroro was looking both scared and embarrassed. "If...If it would be okay, and with your permission, I'd...I-I'd like to kiss you one more time. You know, just before I lose myself and my humanity forever?" Honestly he just wanted a good-bye kiss. He just wanted to kiss Tamama just once.

"You don't have to kiss me only once." Tamama replied, way too honestly.

Keroro just blushed. "S-so...You're...You're okay with it? Even though I'm a clone?"

"I told you, I was being stupid. I don't care about that anymore. I care about you. I love you. I've wanted this for forever." Tamama flung his arms around Keroro's back. "So freakin kiss me."

Keroro nodded. He leaned down a bit hesitantly wondering how to make a sweet innocent kiss. Tamama got tired of his bashfulness and just went in. He pulled him down into his lips and kissed him passionately.

As promised, it was not one kiss. It was several kisses one after another. It made Keroro feel like he was filled with joy, he felt more powerful than he had ever been when he was a God, he felt more light than he ever had been before as Tamama kissed him.

He wrapped his hands around Tamama's body and pulled him closer fumbling backwards as he fell against the wall. Tamama happily pushed him against it and kissed him as much as possible.

When the two were finally breathless and Tamama was ready to talk again, he pulled apart. "Stay here tonight."

Keroro's eyes widened when he realized exactly what he was talking about. He blushed, not exactly against the idea. He was just amazed at how fast Tamama's mind worked. It was true they didn't have very much time to date or anything, but Tamama sure was jumping into things.

However he did remember that Tamama had never made it very much of a secret that he wanted to have an affair with him. "U-uhh..." He very much wanted to spend the night with Tamama, he was just very embarrassed by the idea. "B-but..I'm Keron's God?" He tried to remind, he didn't know if he was allowed to have sexual relations with people, although he realized almost instantly it was his choice, not Keron's. _I'm still me at the moment. I still have my mind. My feelings. I can make up my own mind._ He told himself.

"I don't care." Tamama said simply, "I want you to be mine."

"I can't be just yours. Someday I'll be everyone's and I'll be Keron's god-" Keroro reminded.

"Then let me taint Keron's god. I want to make Keron's god all mine for a night. Or as many nights as able." Tamama told him, "If I could I'd make you mine for eternity."

Keroro blushed deeply, but he kept holding Tamama. "Okay." He leaned down and kissed him again.

The two kissed and headed off to bed.

* * *

Keroro slept in. Kululu however did not have that privilege.

 _I have to figure out how to stop this war for good without everyone's help. That's the only way Mois can get away from the battlefield._ Keroro had said that his intellect could do anything. That he just simply wasn't trying hard enough.

Perhaps he could try. Perhaps he could do it and figure out a way to stop the flyians. It was true that he could do very impressive feats when he actually got serious. So he had to actually start focusing.

He sneaked off to the battlefield to see things up close and personal and try to come up with some ideas for some inventions, a plan, anything. He just had to end this thing and quickly. Mois was just too stubborn to listen to him, so he had to manage to find another solution.

"What'cha doing?" Angol Mois asked, floating rather briefly overhead.

Kululu jumped. She wasn't supposed to be here! He had thought she was still asleep. She wasn't a light-sleeper so she couldn't have figured out he was gone, right? "W-what are you d-doing here?" _How did you know I left?_

"I reached over for you and you weren't in bed anymore. I got worried so I went to go look for you." Angol Mois replied, "And what do I find but you sneaking out to a war zone. That's really dangerous, Kululu!" She scolded.

"Really dangerous?" Kululu asked. "Really dangerous!?" He just looked at her flabbergasted. "You're the one in real danger here! You shouldn't have followed me into such a dangerous place."

"I'm way better shielded than you, Kululu." Angol Mois pointed out, "A battlefield means nothing to me. It's all the same when you fly away from the planet and descend upon it. Both sides are just a part of the surface and specks compared to the universe."

Kululu just frowned. _I can't properly survey things and come up with a plan when you're here. I'll just be worried about you._ "Don't you remember what the flyians did to you last time? You have to remember. I still have nightmares about it to this day. Don't you worry that once they realize you're here to they'll try the same thing?" Kululu pointed out.

Mois frowned. "I...I got caught last time because I put my trust in the wrong people. On their own the flyians can do nothing to me and they know that. That's part of the reason they fear me." She tried to sooth Kululu's worries. She landed on the ground to try to give him a hug to reassure him.

"B-but...You could be hurt...There's all sorts of things here that could hurt you besides a few pesky insects." Kululu pointed out. "Bullets, lasers, take your pick of weapon. You can't take them all on by yourself."  
"For you I would. Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself. And I'm not going to abandon you. I'm just as worried about you as you are about me." She reassured. "I'll stay by your side forever."

This didn't sooth Kululu's worries, but he did allow her to hug him and hold him. As he tightly let himself be held, he didn't notice the slight buzzing in the background.

" _It's her. The angolian girl. She's here too."_ The flyians noticed. These specific flyians were out on their own recon duty, not yet having viper hosts.

" _CRAP! Are we all going to die here because we couldn't finish her off?"_ The other flyians were panicking. First her, next that god would show up or something. This was all going very poorly for them.

" _We don't have to die. We're not going to die. We started this war to eliminate our enemies. To never be eaten by them again. Our species will survive."_ The flyians tried to agree.

" _How? She's not going to trust one of her friends we con again. And it's not like we could swarm her. I bet she'd just cruelly stomp on us and laugh and be like 'you're just bugs!. This is nothing compared to destroying an entire planet.'"_ The flyians were beginning to panic.

" _Look at her. She can be conned again. She has trust. She'll even go into a clearly dangerous battlefield because of her insistence not to abandon that yellow one."_ The flyians pointed out.

" _So we try to get him to do our work for us? It looks doubtful that he'd betray her. He isn't like that blue one secretly hating her."_ Another flyian pointed out.

" _No. We capture him. She'll put herself in danger if it's for him. And then we can lure him into a trap."_ The flyians suggested.

All of the creatures buzzed in agreement.

And Kululu heard none of it.

Eventually after hugging for a bit, he pulled apart. _She still shouldn't be here._ He decided. He really need to figure a way out of this, for the both of them. "Mois." Kululu glanced up, "Let's head back to the base."

"Okay!" Angol Mois smiled.

"But I dropped a tool around this area a while back. Could I go fetch it first?" Kululu asked.

Angol Mois nodded.

"Wait here." Kululu requested.

She nodded again, having no idea Kululu was trying to ditch her. Kululu quickly ran off to do some recon work heading around some broken pillars so she could not see him. He had no missing tool.

He was just trying to get farther onto the battlefield than Mois was. He sat down after a moment when he found someplace that he thought looked level enough to set up a bunch of monitors to run numbers and statistics.

Before he could get any work done though he heard buzzing.

He glanced up at the sky and a giant swarm of flyians was descending. _Crap._ He thought to himself. They weren't in any viper's they were just on their own.

He didn't have any bug spray on him either. He wondered if he could stomp on all of them or grab them.

They swarmed him before he could even move. Kululu felt the thoughts in his head slow down from just the swarm of flyians around him and the lack of oxygen in such a condensed area. "W-what...What do you want? I...I w-won't….Die." He coughed.

" _We aren't trying to kill you. You're going to be our prisoner, like keronians have treated us for eons."_ They told him.

"G-going to eat me for my intellect or something? T-that's not how it works." Kululu coughed again. He was getting woozy. Things were starting to black out.

" _No. You're going to be the bait to lure out your little friend. If it's for you she'll expose herself to danger. So we thank you for solving our angolian problem."_ They told him.

Before Kululu could scream or try to stop them, he blacked out.

Mois looked up to the sky, wondering how long Kululu would be finding that lost thing. She wondered how important the tool was.

A flyian approached her. She took out her spear and glared. _"I am just a messenger. I have come to tell you we have captured your love. If you want to get him back come to area 52-3 G at sundown."_ Mois did not squash the flyian just in pure shock. It flew away.

She ran over desperately to where she had seen Kululu head off to. She flew over-head but she could see no signs of Kululu.

He was gone. And Mois realized to her horror he had been captured.

"N-no...No!" He had been right about it being dangerous on the field. _I should have protected him better._ And now he could be being tortured, killed or who knows what else.

She felt true fear at what was happening to Kululu at that very moment. She turned around and headed back to the base to gather as much help as she could.

Right now she needed a God. She needed Keroro and his instance fix to any problem.

* * *

Kululu woke up not in any sort of shackles or bound to anything. Looking around he noticed he was just on the ground, however an intense force field surrounded him.

He walked over to it and poked at it. A giant electrical surge went through his body. "Ku!" _It's not like it hurts that much, I can handle some electricity but as long as this thing is up and all the electricity is being channeled everywhere, it's impossible to get through._ He had built force fields of the same variety.

He briefly scanned his prison chamber for some rocks that he could throw at the field to try to see how strong the electrical surge was or how much it took to channel it away from somewhere, but he could see no rocks.

He saw a numerous amount of traps set outside the force field. He recognized it all as traditional Viper traps that they used during war, a lever that would set off arrows or bullets all sorts of things.

Nothing was really in his own chamber though. The flyians must have thought that the force field was going to hurt and torture him enough. Although he was a little burned he wasn't particularly hurt. He had a high pain-threshold.

 _I see what's going on though._ He realized. _I'm just a sitting duck until someone comes to get me._ He realized. He pressed on his headphones wondering if he could start a transmission to the base or access radio communication. His headphones weren't working though from the amount of pure energy around him from the force field.

 _They're using me as bait to lure out Mois. They then probably intend to use their traps to kill her or attack her._ Kululu grimaced. He knew if Mois knew he was in danger she'd come straight into the trap whether it was a trap or not.

He didn't want Mois to be hurt because of him. And he did know she would be hurt if he remained here. _I've got to get out somehow._ He stuck his hand back in the force field hoping desperately to get through.

It zapped him for as long as his hand remained there. "ACK!" He pulled his hand away.

 _No way out of that thing._ He realized. What other methods were there? He had no tools at his disposal at the moment.

 _I can't allow myself to be bait for Mois._ Kululu cursed to himself. He knew what the military protocol called for when you became a prisoner of war. He knew the solution that had been taught in school for when you became bait for your comrades-

It was always death. You couldn't be used for bait if you were dead. And although the thought passed Kululu's head briefly he quickly shook it off. _If I die Mois would be filled with grief. Sure she would totally kill all the Vipers and flyians in revenge, but I...I can't leave Mois alone to raise our kid together. That would be cruel of me._ So it wasn't an option.

He had to survive this just as much as Mois did. But how else could he get out of this? He sat down trying to use his intellect to figure out a solution.

"Only one thing to start doing. Testing how strong this force field is, I suppose." Only way to learn more was to test after all. Didn't matter how much the electricity was supposed to torture him.

Kululu walked up to try to press his body on it again. A loud zapping noise crackled through the air as Kululu fried.

 _Got...To find a way out of this!_ Kululu told himself.

* * *

Angol Mois opened Tamama's door by knocking it down. She didn't waste time knocking, she was too busy sobbing.

"Eek!" Tamama yelled. He quickly jumped out of Keroro's arms.

"I...I went to Uncle's room and I couldn't find him...Oh! You're here!" Mois looked relieved. Her face was wet with tears.

"M-mois! Umm...Uhh...What do you want?" Keroro asked looking at the wrecked door awkwardly. "Is it something important because I'm rather busy-"

"Kululu's been captured by the flyians!" Mois sobbed, "So yes! It is important. It's more important than whatever you were doing."

Keroro blushed. He then processed what Mois had said. "Kululu...Kululu's been captured? Kululu?" Kululu was always the one least likely to be captured in Keroro's mind, "Is he okay?"

"What do you think, Uncle?" Mois said sarcastically, "When I got captured by the flyians I got terribly tortured. Kululu's probably getting the very same treatment…." She sobbed again.

"We should tell the Colonel! He'll know what to do!" Keroro suggested.

Mois nodded. She didn't know much about military plans or protocol so she listened to Keroro's advice.

They all headed off to the meeting room as fast as possible, but when Mois had told the colonel what the flyians had told her and where to find Kululu, the colonel had just frowned.

"It's a trap. That much is obvious. He's being kept alive for the sole reason of destroying our assets." The colonel explained.

"So what do we do?" Keroro asked.

"Nothing. Kululu was smart, but he wasn't really doing much in the actual battle. He only worked when it suited him. He wasn't as much of an asset to us as the flyians estimated." The colonel explained, "So there's no need to waste military materials rescuing him. The flyians can have him." The colonel did not realize that the flyians were trying to lure out Mois. He just assumed they wanted Keroro. "I forbid you from rescuing him."

Mois froze. "S-so...W-we're just going to leave Kululu?" She whimpered. "That's awful! You're awful! How could you?"

"If we needed him so much we wouldn't have exiled him." The colonel shrugged. "We still have one of Keroro's platoon members so he's not needed." He gestured to Tamama.

"Now...Now I know why Kululu hates Keron so much." Mois sobbed, "You really are such an awful and ugly group of people."

The colonel shrugged not really caring much for Mois. Honestly she scared him a little bit. It was a miracle that even one Keroro had managed to reign in her destruction so much. He walked away offering no support for the missing Kululu.

"I...I agree with you, Mois." Keroro offered. "Kululu's my platoon mate, even if he doesn't want to be. He's agreed that the whole cloning thing wasn't my fault. He's talked to me when I've needed him to console me about being a god." Keroro described. "We'll rescue him. The three of us. At sunset."

Mois nodded. "T-thank you." She agreed. "I...I will start getting ready. I need to be as strong as possible to save Kululu. He probably wants me armored or something so I don't get hurt rescuing him." She needed to keep her nerves good, she needed to focus. After all she couldn't go get him until sunset, right?

Tamama frowned. _That woman and Keroro going on a rescue mission together?_ He didn't really like the idea of it. _What if now that Kululu's missing she attaches herself to Keroro again?_ What if Kululu died and to deal with the grief she flirted with Keroro?

He was too jealous to allow that to happen! He'd go with her in Keroro's steed. He'd rescue Kululu instead.

So he approached the training room after the meeting. Mois was there picking out guns, despite not being a very good shot.

"Why do we have to go at sunset? Wouldn't it be less risky if we went when they weren't expecting us? They think you'll follow everybody's orders including theirs. So why not disprove them?" Tamama suggested.

Mois looked at Tamama. She hadn't thought about that before. "T-that's...Very smart." She was just used to following requests. She hadn't questioned not going at sunset and going sooner. Still she was a little reluctant to take Tamama's advice since he had led her astray so many times.

"Don't look at me so skeptically! I'll tell you honestly why I'm helping you!" Tamama waved his arms, "And it's exactly as fits my character. Selfish and jealous!"

Angol Mois breathed a sigh of relief. That sounded like Tamama. She would have been really worried if he was just trying to be nice.

"I...I want to sneak off with you earlier than you're supposed to. I don't want Keroro to go rescue Kululu." Tamama told him. "Partly because I don't want you alone with him, but..."

Angol Mois nodded. That all sounded very like Tamama, "But?" She asked.

"I'm worried they might be trying to lure Keroro out too. It's clear Kululu is bait, but he could easily be bait for both you and Keroro!" Tamama admitted. He had been thinking about it more and more. The flyians could be using Keroro's platoon mate as bait too. It would be hurting two people at once.

"And it's bad if Kululu's being used as bait for Keroro?" Angol Mois asked. She didn't see the problem. It meant Kululu was alive for this moment. She could just beat the flyians before they hurt her. Keroro could probably do the same.

"I just want to keep Keroro safe." Tamama told her. It was half true. _I don't want Keroro to god out if Kululu gets hurt and dies like Fuyuki did._ Tamama thought to himself. _If he goes full god he'll lose his humanity. And I just got Keroro's love. He can't lose the ability to love yet. I don't want him to stop loving me. I...I want Keroro to stay mortal. For as long as possible. I'll make him mortal in any way I can._

He'd keep him from becoming a god. Even if it meant helping Mois on a dangerous mission.

Angol Mois nodded. She stuck out her hand. "Let's work together then." She still seemed reluctant. She must have still been mad over being almost murdered by Tamama.

"Okay." Tamama shook her hand. He was still mad too, so they were even. He was still mad that she was his love rival during some point and he still felt jealous of her.

Still, they would work together although begrudgingly. They'd do anything for Keroro and Kululu.

* * *

It was pretty easy to sneak away much earlier than the designated time. Tamama wondered how quickly Keroro would realize the two of them ditched him to save Kululu together.

Seeing how quickly Mois rode a small hovering bike with him, Tamama could tell just how worried she was about Kululu.

 _I wonder if helping her will make up to her about...About how she almost died because of me._ Tamama wondered to himself. He did still feel a little bad about it. Okay, a lot bad. But he hadn't managed to ever work up the courage to apologize.

He had realized he didn't hate her enough to want her dead. He didn't want to be that sort of person. That evil. He might be that evil but he didn't want to be that sort of person. He wanted to redeem himself. _I wonder if Keroro ever realized how terrible I was because I did that. Will...Helping her redeem me in his eyes too? Does he think less of me?_ Tamama wondered.

Keroro seemed to be the only person who never talked about it and seemed to have fully forgotten. Kululu and Mois certainly hadn't and continuously reminded him of his past mistakes.

Tamama scooted on the bike, closer. _I'm sorry._ He thought secretly to himself. _Let me make it up to you by making sure that the same thing that happened to you doesn't happen to Kululu._

"We're almost there." Mois told him and landed. There was a long mark pathway to wherever they were going. Mois was about to walk forward.

"Wait!" Tamama yelled. "Could be traps." _She's not too smart, is she?_

Mois stopped. "Then what do we do?" She asked.

"L-let...Let me go first. I'm good at blowing up traps. Not that great at avoiding them, but I can notice them." Tamama offered.

Mois actually looked surprised by the offer. "Okay…." She thought for a moment, "Thank you."

Tamama nodded. He then ran forward. Just as he had expected arrows triggered and bullets. _Come at me!_ He thought. "TAMAMA IMPACT!" He blew at the traps.

Instantly they vaporized in front of him from his energy blast. He desperately dodged everything that was coming at him.

Mois followed him once the path was clear.

* * *

They finally reached Kululu. An electrical field surrounded him from top to bottom like a dome.

"So you came earlier than ordered." Three Viper's were guarding his prison cell.

"Eep!" Tamama turned white. He hadn't even handled one Viper.

"I can deal with this." Mois offered. She brought out her spear and spun it. She then rushed forward and hit the three vipers. "Armaggedon 1/100,000,000!" She yelled

"AHHHH!" They screamed. Instantly they burst into pieces, eliminating the guards. Despite the ripple that shook the ground, the force field was not effected and remained strong.

"More will probably come soon." Tamama noted.

Angol Mois didn't listen to him. Instead she looked right in front of her at Kululu who was separated from her by an electrical field. He got up various screens blinking across his glasses as if he was trying to examine something.

"Kululu!" She yelled in joy. She rushed forward as if she was going to grab him.

"STOP!" He yelled desperately before she hit the force field.

She froze. "W-why? Aren't you happy to see me? I'm here to save you!"

"Frankly I'm not. It's exactly what they wanted you coming here! I'm bait for you!" Kululu yelled. "Glad that you brought someone else though...I didn't know Tamama would be the one to offer to help and save me, but...Thanks." He gave a quick nod to Tamama.

Angol Mois frowned. She pulled out her spear. "Is it because of this thing that you wanted me to stop?" She pointed to the electrical field. "I'll just destroy it with my spear! It's a force field right? I'm sure enough force will destroy it!" She glanced down at Kululu's charred body, "Is this thing what hurt you?"  
"No! Don't touch it!" Kululu yelled, panicked. "It zaps whatever gets caught in it, all the energy being directed there. If you or your spear touch it-" Kululu paled.

Angol Mois paled a little too. "I-if...If you can handle electricity-"

"I'm not letting you get electrocuted! That's stupid! It will fry and kill you! It's got way too much power. A normal person would be destroyed by it. Since I'm so used to getting zapped by electrical chords I'm able to handle it a little more, but you-" Kululu paused. He placed his hands on his face as if to shield her from seeing his eyes and just how worried he was. "From some of the tests and statistics I've run on this thing I suspect it was made to just immediately vaporize something with angolian blood. That's why it's been used in my trap." Kululu told her. "It's a trap for you and our baby. It will destroy you both if you touch it."

Angol Mois looked frightened for a moment, "Then...What do I do if I can't hit it?" She asked. "I need to get you out of there!" She angrily kicked at the ground and a rock.

The rock hit the force field and a tiny zap was generated eventually crumbling the rock. Kululu glanced at the force field and placed his hand to it. It zapped his fingers, but not his palm, which was the size of the rock. "Ku. Exactly as I theorized." He spoke to himself.

Mois watched. "Don't hurt your fingers!" She frowned at him, "But...It didn't hurt the palm of your hand..." She was confused.

"I remember seeing something like this!" Tamama spoke up, trying to add to the conversation. "Rocks would channel the energy elsewhere. I kicked Dororo in to a force field like this and all the energy was channeled to zapping him. He couldn't get through though." He said disappointing.

"Well if I tried to do a Dororo it would just zap me as much." Kululu shrugged. "I wouldn't be able to run through. All the energy would be directed at me. Trust me I've tried. Ku, ku, ku." His body did look pretty scratched up. He had in fact tried several ways to get out of this thing. "It would take something of about an equal size as me to generate a hole for me to run through." He shrugged and said casually.

 _He's right. If we kicked something in that was about his size to the top of the field there might be enough space for Kululu to quickly run through while the force field was trying to zap it._ Mois thought to herself.

"There's no rocks that are your size though, Kululu!" Tamama pointed out.

"Yeah, and a rock wouldn't last long enough. You saw how quickly it crumbled the last rock." Kululu pointed out. "It would have to be something that the field didn't completely vaporize or fry."

 _It hasn't vaporized or fried Kululu. It doesn't destroy keronian bodies completely. It just electrocutes them and fries them._ Mois realized.

A keronian body was the same size as Kululu. If something the same size as Kululu….Her eyes drifted very briefly towards Tamama who was the only keronian near her at the time.

 _No! I can't kick Tamama into the force-field...Right?_ Mois thought to herself. She doubted for a moment. But it was only a moment.

Unfortunately as she looked away from Tamama she couldn't silence her infinite memories of Tamama harassing her, hurting her, abusing her, all sorts of bad things Tamama had done to her in the name of jealousy. Heck, she had almost died because of Tamama. He had tried to sacrifice her to the flyians.

Why should she put Tamama's life above Kululu's in anyway? Why shouldn't she let Tamama help her for once in his life? Why should she doubt dishing Tamama up some karma?

She didn't doubt any longer what she would do. Even if Tamama died from the force field it didn't matter to her. Tamama's life was no longer worth anything to her after all the crap he had put her through.

 _I do believe in justice and in karma as an angolian. Every day I'm choosing one life over another. It's in my job. Destroy a planet to save the universe from it. It's easy to choose Kululu's life over Tamama's._ Mois thought to herself. She was fully on board with her plan.

As Tamama chattered and tried to offer ideas to Kululu and Kululu tried to listen and tell the flaws, Mois approached Tamama from behind. He didn't suspect anything of what Mois was planning. Mois then raised her foot and then kicked him as hard as she could.

 _This is repentance for almost murdering me._ Mois thought to herself. "You could say, not a glutton for punishment?"

"AHHH!" Tamama flew into the energy field. Electrical surges and sparks were all around him as he fried.

Immediately as he entered a hole appeared. Kululu wasn't going to waste time by questioning it. He ran through and into safety outside of the force field.

Tamama just continued frying above them as Kululu caught his breath from running through the force field as fast as he could. He ran straight into Mois's arms and the two of them hugged.

He didn't say anything, but she tightly held him. "I'm so glad you're all right." She happily reunited with him.

They hugged for a long moment and eventually a fried Tamama fell to the ground. He wasn't talking, his mouth was just bubbling, blood pooling around his eyes. It was unclear if he was alive or dead, but he clearly wasn't conscious.

Mois took no notice of him. She heard footsteps behind her.

"There you are!" Keroro called. "I finally caught up with you! I couldn't find you or Tamama so I assumed you went ahead without telling me-" His attention immediately focused on Tamama on the ground.

Mois didn't say anything. She just looked at Keroro with a little bit of pity for him. She was intensely silent as Keroro ran over to Tamama and picked him up and held him in his arms.

"T-tamama? Tamama…? T-tamama?" Keroro asked, holding him and just repeating the name over and over again. He didn't shake him not wanting to hurt him.

Hearing Keroro call his name, Tamama opened his eyes seeming to awaken just enough to say one last thing. "R-run..." He begged, "T-the Vipers...C-could come back at any moment." He tried to reach up to Keroro's face to wipe away his tears, but his hand was too weak. It plopped down unable to move and Tamama closed his eyes once again.

Keroro couldn't even hear shallow breathing. Tamama was that weak. He wanted to scream, but he was too scared for Tamama's life to do such a thing. "What happened?" He asked Mois and Kululu desperately.

"Vipers-" Kululu tried to lie. Mois however would not.

"They were imprisoning Kululu in a force field. The energy needed to generate a hole in it for him to escape would only be there if something of his size was thrown into the electrical surge. So I threw Tamama in." Mois was not a coward. She would take the blame and face responsibility for her actions. She had never lied about destroying planets. Why should she lie about enacting both justice on Tamama and using him to save Kululu's life?

Keroro looked at her shocked. She had done this? _She sounds so cold. Like...She doesn't regret it at all._ She truly was the lord of terror.

And in that moment Keroro realized why the flyians feared her so. Because these sort of actions, sacrificing one life for another was truly normal to her. She didn't even look like she was experiencing any guilt. Even Tamama had felt guilt for trying to sacrifice Mois as bait for the flyians.

Keroro was horrified and disgusted with Mois. More than anything he was hurt and betrayed by her. But his hands shook in anger.

If he was dead to her, she could be the same to him. "Get out of my sight. I don't want people to be in my life who hurt the people I care about." He hissed at her. "You...You're dead to me." He told her the same thing she had told him.

There was no chance to fix this relationship. It didn't matter if he was a clone. He no longer wanted her to forgive him and her attention.

Mois nodded, acting polite towards the fact that Keroro no longer wanted her in his life. She tugged at Kululu's hand. "Come on. Let's fly out of here."

"Back to the base?" Kululu asked.

"No. It's clear that if you stay on this battlefield the flyians will try to capture you again to get to me. Let's leave. We shouldn't have been trying to help Keron anyway." Mois told him.

"We can't leave. Or well I can't. They're threatening you-" Kululu tried to remind.

"They just left you for dead. They think they need only Tamama now. I don't think Keron cares about you enough to chase after me." Angol Mois paused. "I won't let them threaten you any longer. Let's fight back. Let's just go. There's a chance they won't even care or will think you died because they didn't rescue you."

Kululu thought for a moment and nodded. It wasn't like he wanted to be here anyway. He glanced at Keroro one last time. He couldn't really say sorry for Tamama's condition or something. Tamama had gotten that way because of him. "Good luck." He said one last time. Mois then picked him up and the two flew off.

They were gone. Keroro didn't care though. Instead he held Tamama and sobbed, harder and harder.

As he sobbed the force field went out and the Vipers approached filled with the flyians. Hundreds and hundreds of Vipers approached.

Although Angol Mois was no longer here, they knew who was. Keroro. And Keroro was still something they needed to take out.

They circled him and started enclosing on the crying keronian. Keroro did not notice them approaching. He just cried.

" _Hello."_ They finally said.

And the flyians were there, all around Keroro.

* * *

 **Fun fact, the reason Angol Mois was not in Dororo and Giroro's chapter was because in my chapter summary it turned out she was on a different planet and I just put her on the ship and base because it didn't make sense that she hadn't been taken to if they learned she was pregnant. However I forgot to give her any lines or anything to do and that's where the problem of where she was originated.**

 **Also another fun fact in the original draft (The first one where Fuyuki dies/not the current one I'm using,) Tamama died in this chapter. So that's an interesting fact.**

 **Anyway please review!**


	17. The You In the Mirror

**Okay so I managed to write the last chapter. Sorry if it's weird, I always have a little bit of a problem with ending endings at like the very end. I'm sure this is a common problem a lot of writers have though. I feel like I might have done a little better if I hadn't been rushed by school but at the same time I'm glad I finally finished this fic.**

 **Honestly the end is way better than the original end which I will talk about at the bottom. Like...Man was the original draft of this story (which to its credit was written four years ago,) bad. Like...this was one of my first ever fanfiction drafts so of course it was bad and really weird.**

 **Either way I hope it's somewhat satisfying. Thanks for reading up till now.**

* * *

The flyian forced the Viper's mouths to grin. There was no angolian in sight. They couldn't even sense her presence. Angol Mois was gone.

Not only that their plan seemed to have caused another thing that they could only feel pure joy at. The God of Keron had been lured out as well and instead of fighting his attention was instead focused on a keronian they just assumed was dead in his arms. It looked like he had sustained heavy injuries.

Sure the keronian could have just been dying but either way that suited their minds just fine. The blue keronian didn't really need to be around, his existence was unnecessary. Still seeing how much Keroro cried made it clear just how much he cared about him.

The Vipers and flyians had surrounded him. Keroro was just beginning to notice them as he sniffled rather pathetically. He pulled Tamama closer to him as if to protect him.

" _Don't worry we're not going to touch him."_ They told him, their faces becoming sneers. _"We've come to offer our help."_

"Help? You want to help me?" Keroro asked, confused. What could they help him with? Why were they offering their help? Did they recognize him as Dororo's friend? Did they care?

 _The only thing I need is Tamama to make it through this, the war to end and to not become a god or something. I don't think they can do any of those things._ And they certainly wouldn't want to beat themselves for him.

" _We can give you what you most desire right at this moment. We can save your companion's life."_ They offered.

Keroro perked up. "How?" He asked, his hands shaking. If they could help Tamama…..Well he wanted them to help Tamama. _But why? Why are they offering to help him? Is it because they know Mois hurt him and they dislike her more than the keronians?_ He didn't understand.

" _We'll sacrifice one of our flock. If your companion eats one of us whole he'll gain power. Enough power for him to live through his injuries and overcome them."_ The flyians told him and explained.

They neglected to mention the fact that most young keronians around Tamama's age died a terrible death from consuming flyians, they just simply weren't use to the food and as if their body had developed an allergy to it since they hadn't been raised on it, they melted away into mush their molecules tearing apart in a horrible and painful death. Keroro didn't need to know that it was doubtful eating a flyian would even help.

Keroro's eyes widened in shock. He looked hopeful. "You'd...You'd do that? One of you would get eaten for him?" He was surprised.

" _We see you're eager to save your friend's life. But slow down...We don't offer charity, we make bargains."_ Their buzzing seemed to be laughing at him. _"We want you to do something for us in return."_

Keroro looked up. That made sense. "W-what...What is it?" He asked hesitantly. It couldn't be good, he imagined. _What if it's abandoning Keron? Helping the flyians destroy them?_ He didn't know if he could do that. Sure they had done some bad things but he still really liked Keron. And he didn't know if it was within his powers to destroy.

Was the sort of God he was a destructive God? He knew the original Keroro had caught the flyians, had created keron and the keronians but did he ever end things? Could he destroy Keron? Did he have the power to if the flyians asked?

Logically it made sense that they would ask him to do something horrible like destroy Keron. Keronians were their enemies they wanted the feeding on them to end. And the only way the flyians were ever going to be free of being hunted was if all the keronians were dead.

But Keroro didn't know if he could destroy an entire planet for one person. He didn't know if physically it was within his capabilities or if he could mentally handle it. He didn't want to destroy people.

 _I don't want to hurt anyone._ He realized. He wasn't a murderer. He didn't want to be. It didn't matter if he was a god or not. He just didn't want to kill.

" _No. Don't do whatever horrible thing they're asking of you for me."_ Keroro could almost imagine Tamama's voice, but his face was so still, so frozen. He knew Tamama wouldn't want Keroro to hurt anyone for him but he still felt the need to listen to the flyian's request.

Slowly more and more Vipers and flyians surrounded the two of them. Keroro was beginning to suspect all the flyians were congregating because they knew Keroro was a tough foe and the main threat to them.

Keroro wiped some blood off of Tamama's face. He could imagine Tamama saying he was fine although he clearly wasn't. Keroro gently put Tamama on the ground to rest. He stood up to face the flyians.

" _We want you to die for us."_ They ordered and buzzed.

Keroro actually glanced up. That was his second guess of what their request was. He was the major defense Keron had after all. Without him Keron was doomed. Still, it was a less hideous request than killing all of Keron.

 _It's the same as the last time I faced them._ Keroro thought to himself. They were always trying to force him to die.

" _It's one life for a life. It makes sense. We'll save him by sacrificing one of our own if you sacrifice yourself."_ They told him.

"If you want me dead so much why don't you ever try to kill me yourself?" Keroro asked.

He could see the flyians dispersed to reveal something behind them- a tree. Some other flyians flew closer to him and dropped something on the ground, a noose.

 _At least they're providing tools._ Keroro tried to think positively.

" _We can not hurt you. You...Are too strong for us."_ They admitted, " _You are more than our power. The only thing that can hurt you is you."_

Keroro frowned. That made sense in a way. He looked down at his hands- still his own, still mortal. He didn't feel more powerful than the flyians and like a god. "Am...Am I able to die?" Perhaps he could dissuade the flyians from wanting to take his life.

He sensed that he was still mortal, but secretly he was scared. He was so scared of death. He didn't feel like a god. He felt like a clone who didn't want to be replaced by the next clone. He knew his life would just disappear if that was the case.

 _I don't want to be replaced._ He thought. He knew he probably could die though. The original Keroro had killed himself to 'ascend back to the heavens or something' although he wasn't sure if that was technically dying. The original Keroro seemed like he had planned to go back to whatever world he had come from but the keronians hadn't wanted that, had tried to trap him in a mortal body and that was how he had fully died.

" _Yes. It should work. You should still be able to die."_ They responded to him, _"And you won't go back to the heavens or be able to resurrect by choice. You'll just be dead like a normal person. Gone. You'll have disappeared."_

Keroro paled. He could feel himself take shallow breaths as the idea entered his head, scaring him more and more. He didn't want to die. _I don't want to not exist. I don't want to disappear. I've barely impacted the world! I haven't finished my gundam model collection. There's so many things I haven't done!_ He wanted to cry. He wanted to be with Tamama. He wanted to see Fuyuki. He wanted to be normal. He didn't want to die.

" _We can sense that you're still a normal keronian. You're mortal and you still have your mind, your human emotions. You're yourself. You're not truly a god yet."_ The flyians told him, _"Your insecurities...Your fear of death...Anxieties...They've always tied you down to this life. That's why you haven't become a full god yet. You can die because you fear dying."_

 _M-my...My fear of death is what's going to kill me?_ Keroro thought to himself. It was ironic. He had wondered why he hadn't become a god yet. He had thought it was because of his hopes to stay normal, but really it was his over-bearing anxiety and insecurities that kept him mortal.

Could he really do this? He didn't know if he wanted to. He didn't know what to do. He glanced over at Tamama.

He wanted to spend another day with him. Just one more. But Tamama probably wouldn't live anyway if he didn't do this. Only one of them could survive.

" _He'll be safe if you disappear. We promise."_ They lied. _"It's the only way to save him."_

Keroro walked forward to the rope to pick it up. He still was unsure of everything, he didn't know how to act or what to do, but he knew he couldn't let Tamama die.

The flyians might be his only chance to save Tamama.

Still as his hands shook he didn't know fully if he could give his life. He was so frightened, he felt his mind drifting away as he let out another sob.

* * *

Keroro wasn't sure where he was. The flyians weren't around and neither was Tamama's body. He didn't know if time had stopped or if he was in his body, another plane of existence or his mind.

He was standing atop a cloud. It was sunset just like it had previously been, but he wasn't alone.

There was humming above his cloud on another cloud. Boxes were stacked high on the other cloud.

 _What's that humming? Does it have the solution to my problem? A way to save Tamama and myself?_ He wondered. He didn't know but he knew he had to get to that cloud.

He jumped effortless up to the second cloud. He was beginning to suspect that wherever he is it was nowhere. That he had just somehow closed himself off and entered his own mind.

Still when he saw the source of the humming, it surprised him. "I should have known it was you. Whenever I'm scared you're there."

Another Keroro had his back turned to him. It was a child version of Keroro. He was painting Gundam models and putting them out to dry. Eventually he turned around, smiling and looking at Keroro.

For some reason Keroro could only see his smile. He couldn't quite see his face. _Is he a clone or just how I see my mental state?_ Keroro didn't know because he didn't even know how he saw himself anymore. Was this someone here to advise him or a long dead consciousness and memory?

"You can't do it." The other Keroro mocked. "You won't be able to agree to giving up your life. You're too afraid."

"I… I am not! I can do it if it's for Tamama!" Keroro tried to say, "It's the only way to save him. You heard them, right?"

The other Keroro went back to building. He sighed. "You won't do it. Because what is after death? You don't know. And the depths of the unknown like that scare you."

"We don't know!" Keroro replied, "And I'm sure...It's not anything bad. Lots of people believe in the idea of an after life-" Keroro tried to explain.

"We don't have that luxury." The other Keroro said, "The after life is for people who actually exist. Do you think there's an after life with thousands and thousands of Keroro clones?" The other Keroro laughed, "You know what will happen to your life. You'll just disappear. You won't be able to watch other people's decisions or choices. You're life will only exist as the memories of another Keroro who replaces you and thinks they are you. It's happened thousands of times. It was the fate of all those other Keroro's. So it'll be your fate too."

Keroro froze, feeling light-headed and weak. He didn't want to hear that. He didn't want to think that.

"You'll just be gone. That's the truth. You won't ever be able to feel again. You'll just have vanished." The other Keroro didn't even seem like he was really talking to him. Instead he seemed focused on his gundam models.

"B-but...I...I c-can't be afraid. I can't be paralyzed with fear..." Keroro was shivering. "I've got to do it. Maybe we're wrong-"

"You're not real." The other Keroro replied. "These gundam models are more real than you." He brought one up for Keroro to look at, "And they will be the only thing that survives to live on as part of your legacy. All the Gundam models you have built. They are your only imprint on life."

Keroro started crying. He knew that was all true. "B-but...I have to do this. For Tamama. I can't just abandon him! That's not fair to him! And he's real too! He's not replaceable like I am. I have to be his hero. I have to protect him. His Keroro knew that, and I should know that too!" He said in tears.

"The flyians are afraid of me. They're proving that they could use people I love against me, just like they did with Mois. The only way to fix this before they hurt more people is to get rid of myself." Keroro sobbed.

"This is all so stupid! This war only started because I caught the flyians and let them be taken prisoner by Keron. Us Keronians could only catch the flyians because of me. That was the case when we hunted them originally too. And I bet I died for that same reason originally, because I didn't want things like this happening. The keronians being greedy and wanting to eat flyians and the flyians revenge festering!" Keroro cried.

As he thought about it, bits and flashes circled his head. Images of his previous death appeared in his head, him falling to the ground looking happy, hoping to ascend to the heavens again knowing that it was better to end this cycle instead of being with the mortals forever. That they had to stand on their own two feet.

But instead of going anywhere his body had been harvested for genetic material. His death hadn't been honored. He had been trapped.

He didn't remember pain from that first death, just the feeling like that was the right choice. But he did remember pain and fear when he realized that the Keronian scientists were not going to let him go and were going to trap him.

Once he had started getting cloned he remembered memories being deleted. He remembered that the only feeling he ever had left was fear. It was always fear and the feeling of being trapped.

 _I really was him. I was the original Keroro. I was a God._ He was finally starting to remember things. His previous life, his memories, all of it.

Memories swirled around of all sorts of Keroro's throughout history. And as the memories flooded him, Keroro didn't feel lost in them. He didn't feel confusion. Instead he felt a sense of understanding. All the clones lives had been his, they all lived within him. And they wanted to end the cycle of the God Keroro as much as the flyians.

"I am Keroro." He realized. "All of them. The good ones. The bad ones. The weird ones. The cowardly ones. They're all me." Keroro was beginning to understand.

He had created Keron. He had wanted it to be a paradise but eventually he wanted it to grow up. It didn't, and they trapped him and he in turn also didn't grow up. He needed to understand what the people who had trapped him were like.

That was why he had lived so long. He had to gain affection for the beings that had wronged him once again. Only then could he unlock his true self.

"I am Keroro. And I can make my own choices just like the original me did. I know how I feel and my heart loves Tamama, now and forever. I want to save him."

"But...You're not completely a god. You're mortal still. You have new emotions. You're frightened-" The other Keroro tried to tell him, "See? You're still shaking right now!"

Keroro nodded. He was still shaking. He wasn't as brave as Giroro or even Kululu could be in the face of death. He wasn't like them. "Perhaps that was the best thing about being resurrected as a clone." Keroro laughed. "When I originally was a god I might have walked among the mortals and observed them but I didn't feel what they felt."

He knew that in his heart. He hadn't ever felt their emotions fully. He hadn't understand the dirty ones, ambition, greed, gluttony, or even fear. It was why he hadn't predicted getting trapped in a human form.

"I was able to experience real emotions as a clone. I was able to be mortal and human." Keroro explained, "I was able to fall in love, feel greed, ambition, get ragged on by my comrades. Play jokes. But most importantly I could feel fright and fear of an existence ending. I can now understand death. Why people are afraid of their friends dying, and why people are afraid of themselves dying." Keroro looked back on the experience, his eyes wide.

"I would have never understood why the keronians did such a horrible thing to me if I hadn't been resurrected. I wouldn't have understood their need to invade, or to eat flyians. It's all out of fear. And that's one of the primary emotions this clone's life has always had. I've always seen it as a fault but now I truly understand how why people would be driven to do bad things." Keroro explained, "It's always out of fear."

"So...What are you going to do?" The younger Keroro asked. "With your fear? Are you going to honor it? Run away?"

"I have many emotions. I have fear and love. It isn't about how strong your emotions of fear are that keeps you from doing what's right. It's what kind of person you want to be. And I want to be a good person. I will do what's right and not let my fears hold me down." Keroro stood tall, "So go away! I don't need you holding me down anymore." He told his younger self assuming that was the form his 'fear' took.

The other Keroro dropped the gundam model. It disappeared. He stood up and Keroro could now fully see his face. A perfect replica of his. But it looked friendlier, as if he wasn't there to hold him down. It looked like he had always been rooting for Keroro.

"I can't go away. I'm you after all." The other Keroro told him. "We all are. We're all a part of you. You're the cultivation of all our lives and memories after all."

Millions of Keroro's appeared behind him. They came in all ages, but they all looked the same. Had they all been different lives throughout the generations?

They waved, some of them looking calm and peaceful, some clapping and cheering him on. Some looked sad, but proud.

 _Have they all been locked up here? In my mind? Are they me or are they still alive through me?_ Keroro reached forward to touch one, as if to know.

They reached forward too. But the hands never reached him. Instead he touched a mirror. There were just millions of mirrors surrounding him.

Other Keroro's had never been there. They truly were all him. They had gone along different paths, but they were still him.

Different forms flashed through the mirror, rippling through it. He could see things in the background as if pictures of some of the Keroro's lives. Slowly he started to remember.

Finally the mirror stopped on the young Keroro. The other Keroro. He could see things in the background of this mirror to, of this Keroro's life.

This Keroro's image had always plagued him in self-doubt. He had always talked to him when he needed to question his own decisions. And it wasn't just in this life. It was in his childhood, it was in generations ago. It was throughout many Keroro's lives that this Keroro appeared to mock and self-doubt the others.

He looked at this Keroro's life. This Keroro who still had his tadpole tail and was much shorter than him. And in his life he saw flyians.

The other Keroro smiled at him.

"So...You're the original." Keroro realized. "The God." He pressed his forehead against the glass.

"We're the god. Or I'm the god. I'm you." The other Keroro replied. Keroro could feel his mouth move because he himself was answering for the image.

"Keron's...Keron's god originally was a child?" Keroro asked. The stories hadn't told him that, he hadn't ever imagined that the original that they had asked to catch flyians for them, who they had trapped in a mortal body had been a child.

It made sense in hindsight. Why else would someone create a society and name it after himself. It was a childish idea.

"Why else was the clone data so unstable?" The other Keroro replied. "They especially had problems when they started fluctuating the age around, like with you or even younger versions of me. But I suppose with you...I finally learned to grow up…. I went through the phases of being a child, having friends, fears, everything and I grew. I'm me and now my form is different. Our form is you." The form changed in front of him to just an image of him.

"Why have you been doubting me all my life? Why have you been questioning me? Why have you been questioning yourself?" Keroro asked. "Don't you have the power to provide solutions?"

The image shook it's head. "I'm you. And if you don't have that power I don't. I've been questioning you because you question yourself. You always have two arguments in your heart, not one. You just needed to weigh the options and hear yourself think." The Keroro replied.

Keroro nodded. That...Felt like the answer he had already known. "Then...Thank you. I've finally come to my conclusion. I'll die. I'm going to keep the keronians from eating more flyians and I'm going to save Tamama's life." He decided.

The other Keroro smiled. "Good. Keep him safe. I'm glad you chose right. I believed in you. Because you're the one he fell in love with. And I love him too we all do. We know he chose right."

And all the Keroro's and mirrors disappeared around him. They were gone.

* * *

When Keroro came to it was like no seconds had even passed. He was still in the same place and nobody was looking at him oddly for spacing out.

"I'll do it." Keroro declared. "I'll die so that you'll save Tamama."

There was a happy buzz around him. The flyians sounded ecstatic. Keroro approached the tree with noose.

He quickly tied it to the tree. The Viper's bodies offered him a small staircase like thing.

Keroro nodded and walked up it. He knew each step was closer to the end of his life, but he no longer feared death.

He was Keroro. He would protect the people he loved any way he could. He believed in the keronian forces that they would beat the flyians somehow even without his help. He knew they could stand on their own. He had watched normal keronians succeed so many times.

He put the noose over his neck and tightened it. The vipers kicked the steps out from under him, and he hung in the air.

However he didn't feel a lack of oxygen. The noose was tightly wound around his neck as he just swung, nothing in his body hurting.

 _What's happening? Why...Why isn't anything happening?_ Keroro wondered. He was no longer frightened. He had overcome it! He had chosen what was right. Why wasn't he dying?

He wanted to cry. _Does this mean I'll get to see things through? I'll get to protect everyone?_

The flyians screamed. _"He's not dying! Nothing's happening! His desire to protect this planet must be too strong. He's...he's become the true God now. He's immortal."_

Keroro opened his eyes. He was floating. As he looked at everything before him, he realized how easy it looked to pick up, to just control and remodel. It was just like a small block in a children's play set.

He could remember thousands of Keroro's throughout history. He was in all of their minds and at the same time none of them. He was himself. He was Keroro.

And he was a god.

He smiled and the noose dissolved around him. "Well, this is a development."

" _He's become too powerful! He's his true self all the time!"_ The flyians screamed. _"Perhaps...If he feels normal emotions again...He'll go back. We'll kill his companion."_ The Vipers moved forward towards Tamama to kill him.

Keroro just snapped his fingers and froze all of them. "That isn't happening. You are not touching Tamama." These Vipers, these flyians...They were really nothing compared to him and his power.

All he did was smile. Then slowly he moved his hands as if he was dancing. The flyians that were all living within the Vipers were pulled out of their bodies as if they were being rejected.

When they tried to swarm back in, it was impossible. It was like they were trying to fly against a wall.

"Normal keronians stand somewhat of a chance against Vipers!" Keroro smiled, "But you two together is unnatural. Please go away from our planet, flyians." He requested. "Or else I will have to delete you from existence. I don't want the keronians getting you though because eating you was how our problems started. The keronians got greedy." He paused. "That and I realized that we shouldn't be eating each other. Vipers shouldn't eat keronians. Keronians shouldn't eat you. And you shouldn't eat Vipers. So pull yourself away from us."

The flyians just shivered in fear. Quickly they tried to fly away in just pure fear. They knew all they could do was abide by Keroro's orders. They didn't stand a chance against him.

" _Although there will always be a Keroro, because you are a concept and a belief, we will exist forever too. We are legendary mythical beings that have been here since the start of time that you just decided should be hunted. We will thrive and someday we will come back and beat you keronians for thinking you can play god and eat us."_ They vowed.

Keroro let them go as he watched the Vipers. Were they going to leave too or were they going to insist on fighting this pointless war?

The Vipers didn't look like they fully knew what was going on. Still they didn't like what Keroro had said. "Hey! We're not going to listen to some flying keronian! We actually have begun to like the taste of keronian meat. It's addictive to our species, makes us feel powerful...No way are we giving that up. EVER!" They declared. They then raised all their gun hands.

Keroro sighed. "I suppose if I want the keronians to be safe and have progress some things in this cycle have to change." Keroro raised his hands and in a flash it looked like all the Vipers had been vaporized by a large beam.

However if someone were too look closer they could see that they were just turned into small snakes. Keroro waved his hand and the snakes seemed to disappear away, teleporting back to their own planet. He had changed all the vipers into a new species. "Please...When you're done evolving again become a better species. A more peaceful one." Keroro wished. "We were a triangle, but we need to become more peaceful.. Both of us." He paused. "Nobody hurts my planet. Keron or Pekopon."

He then gently floated to the ground to Tamama. He rested his hand on Tamama, slowly healing him just a bit to awaken him.

Tamama opened his eyes. "K-keroro?" He asked. "I'm...a-alive?"

"Barely. I need to take you back to the colonel and Agugu to put you in medical bay. My powers can fully heal but I don't want another Fuyuki situation on my hand of messing up and changing you somehow." Keroro tried to pick Tamama up.

He noticed that Tamama didn't seem to be scooting closer to him. In fact he looked like he was trying as hard as he could not to have his body fully touching him.

Keroro noticed that his own body was glowing from becoming a god. Tamama was wincing and looking at the parts of their skin that were touching. Was it burning him? Was touching him just something that his mortal body couldn't handle?

Keroro flew off as fast as he could to bring him back to the base. As they flew Tamama tried not to be frightened.

 _D-does...Does he fully remember me? Know who I am to him? Or as he completely lost himself and become a god?_ Tamama wondered. Either way he knew by how his mind was screaming at him that it was wrong to have their god touching him that it was likely that this was the end of his and Keroro's relationship.

Keroro wouldn't be with him now that he was a god.

"You know I was never meant to be here." Keroro finally said.

"Huh?" Tamama listened.

"Alive. Trapped like this in a mortal body. Once I drop you off I'm going to do one of two things since the war is over." Keroro told him.

"And...What's that?" Tamama asked worriedly.

"I'll either tell my people to release me from this body so I can go back to the heavens. I'm sure they've got formulas or a way to do that to destroy the clone's body for good, or I'll go back to Pekopon." Keroro told him. "Either way the people of Keron need to grow up and learn to be on their own without using me as a crutch."

Tamama wanted to squeeze his arm. "Will you really spend your whole life on Pekopon?"

Keroro thought for a moment. "No...That's probably a selfish decision to go back. You're right. It could easily turn into another Keron situation with them imprisoning me and using my god powers. I will return home, to the heavens." He decided.

Tamama frowned, "But...I don't want you to leave me."

Keroro looked at him sadly. He landed by the base. "We're here. You can start having medical treatment now."

He let Tamama go and he could see the places his skin had been burned by his flesh. He had managed to cause even more harm to his beloved Keronian.

He wondered briefly if he could selfishly have love for a specific keronian for just one last moment. He leaned down to kiss Tamama, one last time.

Tamama held out his arms, expectantly and ready to accept the kiss despite the pain that would go along with it.

Keroro pulled away. _I can't kiss him. Just carrying him hurt him so much. A god wasn't meant to love a mortal or kiss them. If I kissed Tamama it might destroy him. Mind, body, soul, everything._ Keroro realized.

So he couldn't kiss him. Instead he smiled. "Thank...Thank you, Tamama. For letting me experience so much when I was mortal. Thank you for letting me experience love. Please rest well. Good-bye." And with those words, Tamama collapsed on the ground.

Keroro called for the colonel and Agugu to fetch medical support. They came right out there, happy to see Keroro and quickly took Tamama away on a stretcher.

Keroro watched him go. But he didn't leave quite yet. His eyes rested on his fake father, the colonel and Agugu. He still had to say good-bye to them and tell them of his plans to have them release him.

They just stared at him.

* * *

Keroro watched Tamama through the glass as various medics operated on him. The colonel, Agugu and the demon sergeant watched him closely and silently.

"So...You've become a full God now." The Demon Sergeant told him. "Do...Do you still hate me for lyin to you?"

Keroro shook his head. "I can understand my people's hearts. It must have been hard for you seeing someone die so many times. You've lost yourself and someday I hope you recover."

The Demon Sergeant looked at him almost sadly. "You...You can create keronians, right? That's what you did in the very beginning of our existence. Then...Then can you-"

"I can't give you a child. I can't make you or your wife have a son. And I can't replicate a stable version of my child self for you to actually raise. If your wish is to actually have a child, please don't look for solutions in science or magic, just adopt." Keroro replied. "I've heard the orphanage system on Keron is awful." He looked at Tamama again. "It really needs to be reformed."

The Demon Sergeant nodded at the God's words.

The Colonel and Agugu still stared at Keroro silently though as if they were thinking about something. They kept exchanging looks.

"Now..." Keroro turned to them now that he was sure Tamama would make it through and survive. "Now that the war has ended and the flyian problem has been solved I wish to request something of you."

"What is it?" The colonel asked.

"Please destroy the clone's body I am in. Release me from my binds. I wish to go back to the heavens, where I belong." Keroro told him. "Only you and your scientists know how to do this. You're the ones that created me."

"Your a god why don't you just make us-" The Demon Sergeant tried to pipe in.

Agugu stepped forward and placed his hand across the Demon Sergeant's mouth, silencing him. "Will you do it?" He asked the colonel. There was a smile on his face, as if he was thinking something.

The colonel nodded. "I will do as you wish. I will destroy that clone's body." Oddly enough he agreed, despite being one of the biggest known supporters behind the Keroro Project.

Keroro smiled. Things were going well.

* * *

Keroro lay on a stretcher surrounded by giant machines and white walls. There was one door, slightly opened but he couldn't turn his head to see out of it.

The colonel, Demon Sergeant and Agugu surrounded him as he lay down staring at the ceiling, ready to face the conclusion to his life and tale.

"This shouldn't hurt but you will feel dizzy." The colonel explained, "What am I talking about? Nothing probably hurts a god like you." He had a long syringe in his hand and he inserted it into Keroro's arm.

"W-what is it?" Keroro began to ask as the room started to spin. Was it some sort of drug? Did drugs even effect gods?

"It's a special drug we created that was developed specifically for clones. It will drug them and cause paralysis so that we can properly operate on you. You shouldn't even be able to access your powers." The colonel told him.

"After all we wouldn't want any complications!" The Demon Sergeant piped up.

Keroro wanted to nod, but he could already feel the paralysis setting in. He couldn't move. His eyes started to close and he felt as if he was being lulled to sleep.

And then everything went black.

* * *

 _What? How can I be here again? How can I be thinking?_ Keroro's mind wondered. He heard his voice, he felt his thoughts- and it wasn't the thoughts of a God.

Keroro was waking up. The Keroro of Pekopon. The normal Keroro. Was he having one last chance to be alive and emotional? To think for himself?

Keroro was a little nervous but he didn't want to be. He couldn't see anything- but oddly enough he could hear while he was under.

"Step right this way, we've already prepared everything to operate on you." It was the colonel's voice.

Keroro recognized the sound of another stretcher moving. Was it being wheeled next to him?

"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" The Demon Sergeant hesitantly asked.

 _Of course I do. I have to go through with it._ Keroro thought to himself. Didn't they know he couldn't answer though? He was out like a light. Or perhaps one of the other him's were answering for him.

He didn't hear his voice answer though- instead he heard Agugu. "I've already come this far." Agugu replied, "I've had the top scientists on Keron eat the flyians- and although all of them didn't survive some of them did. Those scientists will be able to bring about a new future."

Keroro heard footsteps as more keronians came into the room. He could only assume those were the scientists Agugu was talking about.  
 _Is Agugu trying to help me get free?_ Keroro wondered. _Is it only possible with the scientists in their top state from eating the flyians?_

"They should be able to transfer my consciousness to his body." Agugu finally coldly said.

Keroro felt his mind froze as he tried to process what Agugu was saying.

"My spirit, personality and mind will take over his. We don't need his faulty personality any longer- he's caused enough problems with his notions of abandoning us, killing himself so we didn't depend on him, being so incompetent that he couldn't bring us to a better future, dying all the darn time. We don't need that faulty personality in our god. So we'll fix it."

"But...Are you sure you're willing to take on the burdens of trying to become Keroro?" The colonel asked.

"How can an emperor be someone to worship for all eternity if he's not a God? I'm not aiming for second place. I want the whole deal. He was a fool if he thought that people would only relate to someone mortal. They'll worship whatever the strongest. And I intend to be such." Agugu ambitiously revealed.

Keroro heard shuffling as Agugu got onto the stretcher next to him. _He's...He's going to try to become me? To take over my mind? Delete my consciousness and personality from history?_

Could he do that? Did Agugu have the power? Keroro didn't know but he felt frightened. He felt chilled. He had existed for generations. Generations of Keroros souls and minds were in him. He didn't want that to just stop from Agugu.

He didn't want Agugu to be the God of Keron- he realized in a little under a second that it would be terrible for Keron. _He doesn't want Keron to grow. He doesn't love the people here like I do. He….He wants to control them. He wants them to worship him forever._

Agugu was truly a villain. He was exactly what the flyians had always been afraid of. The greedy, ambitious keronians who could never stop desiring for things. When they lost one means of production they committed another crime to remedy it, a greater crime.

And Agugu was about to commit a great crime. He was gong to wipe away Keroro's mind and try to usurp and become a god, feeling like they only needed his body and power.

"It's time for Keron's god and emperor to finally become one. I will bring to fruition what we have sought for for many many eons." Agugu vowed. "I will have the power of a god."

Keroro wanted the colonel or the Demon Sergeant to stop him. But he heard no complaints from either of them. They were just his loyal lackeys, not caring at all about if this was wrong.

 _I...I can't let this happen._ Keroro realized. Nobody was going to save him or protect him. He had only him. Nobody could be the savior of a god after all. He had to take care of himself.

The drugs were strong in his system. He could feel his cells freezing preventing him from moving. _I can think though. I can hear._ He reminded.

He was a god. That was why the drugs must have not been working completely. He was a god. He needed to use his power to free himself. _I am not a clone. I am Keroro. Just Keroro. We're all here. All of us Keroro's are behind me._

And with that chant being uttered in his head he tried desperately to move, or do anything. He couldn't feel his fingers, his feet or anything else but he managed to open his eyes, slowly.

Agugu was lying on the stretcher next to him. He hadn't been drugged and so when he saw Keroro awake, he grinned and turned his head. "Let's see who's stronger. Me, the average keronian who yearns for more or you who doesn't realize what you have. Only one of us can live, Keroro. There will be only one. Me or you. Agugu or Keroro. There will be only one God." He laughed.

Keroro wanted to shake his head, but he couldn't. He tried to open his lips to say something anything- but he only had the strength to say one thing. "No!" A high pitch scream escaped his lips.

He doubted it carried very far. It wasn't a very god-like scream. It didn't do anything special. It was just his scared sort of scream that he had been accustomed to on Pekopon.

Nobody stopped anything.

"It's all right." Keroro heard the Demon Sergeant's voice as he put his hand on Keroro's shoulder as if to reassure him.

Keroro looked up at the Demon Sergeant as if begging for help, hoping that maybe just maybe the Demon Sergeant still saw Keroro as his son and would save him.

"Although your personality will be gone, you will continue to exist in a way." The Demon Sergeant reassured him, "Keroro as a concept will always exist. That's all you ever were after all, just a concept." He sighed. "Not a little boy...Not a normal child. Just a concept...So it doesn't matter how many times you die or are deleted. Because that concept will always exist in keronians hearts."

Keroro wanted to shake his head. He was sweating in pure terror. _I don't want to be a concept! I want to be Keroro!_

"He's right." The colonel agreed, "You are a concept. That is all you are. Us keronians make a god by our belief in it. We've brought you back. We've made you. So you are our concept. And your body and the concept of you will exist for all eternity." The colonel explained, "You will live for Keron." He actually smiled. "Finally we've become stronger than a God."

 _No! Don't delete me! I don't want him to replace me. This is wrong. Is he really the god you want? Keron will hurt so many people-!_ Keroro wanted to scream.

But nobody would listen. Nobody would hear him.

Keroro couldn't close his eyes as a scientist walked up to Agugu and took off his hat. He begun to run a scalpel down Agugu's skull and crack it open.

Eventually the team of scientists inserted a long tube that looked like some sort of internet cable into his skull. Agugu was fighting back from losing consciousness but as soon as that was attached to some part of his brain, he stopped moving.

The scientists then approached Keroro with the other end of the tube. Keroro tried to struggle but he did not move as the scientists did the same thing to him, removing his hat and finally cutting into his skull.

Keroro heard the cracking sound, he couldn't feel the pain but he could hear as they opened up his skull. Suddenly he felt a jolt of electricity as the cable was attached to his mind.

And he blacked out again as Agugu's and Keroro's consciousnesses and minds became one. As Agugu penetrated the outer layers of his mind and entered it.

Keroro wanted to cry but he could not. He just tried desperately to keep onto himself.

 _I'm a god though. I'm a god._ Keroro told himself as he heard Agugu laughing all around him. It felt like Agugu was trying to slip into a Keroro suit and that he was the other person in the suit being pushed out. _I'm a god. I have power!_ Keroro insisted. He tried to do something, generate something.

He felt himself be pushed out for a second, out of his body. He could feel his spirit floating above his body and Agugu's. His God powers must have let him see things from a different perspective. A more aerial view.

He doubted anyone could see him astral project above the two of them. He didn't know if Agugu was making progress and downloading even more though.

"Destroy. I've got to destroy Agugu." Keroro told himself. He placed his hands out towards Agugu's body.

He was a God. God's smited people, right? And to protect Keron and himself he had to stop Agugu before things were too late.

He had the power.

But nothing happened. None of the destruction he wished for came. "W-why...Why is nothing happening?" He placed his hands out again. "Destroy!" He pointed towards Agugu, the scientists, the colonel. Everywhere he could.

Nothing was destroyed. Nothing even fell.

He let out a sob. "W-why...Why can I not destroy them? Why can I not protect myself?" He stopped crying because he heard the answer in the air.

It was the other Keroro's voice, and inside his heart Keroro already knew the answer. _Gods don't destroy. I….I can't hurt anyone. That's not the type of god I am. I create. I bring life._ He couldn't have selfish wishes as a god like protecting himself.

His powers would not activate. He could not kill a keronian because they were all created by him.

He wasn't a species or creature that destroyed. There were other races out there that did that, other supernatural creatures, but not him.

He could do nothing but watch. He flew back into his body, trying to struggle for control over Agugu.

Agugu was finally managing to control some of Keroro's body- his hand. He was laughing in Keroro's mind. "It feels so powerful! I can feel power coursing through my veins!"

"You...You won't have it. I'll beat you. I'll be here always." Keroro tried to vow.

"Just like you were here thousands of years ago?" Agugu mocked, "That wasn't you, it was a clone! All I have to do is delete each clone from your mind and this place is basically mine."

As he spoke those chilling words, Keroro could feel the purge on the Keroro's already happening. As if thousands of mirrors were around him he heard cracking sounds.

One mirror after another, one Keroro after another, their images just started disappearing.

Agugu was dissolving them. As if Keroro's mind was his plaything even though he hadn't been born here, he held it as if it was putty in his hands.

Keroro didn't understand why he was so weak, was it his self-esteem? Was it that Agugu had more ambition than him and dreams? Why could he do this so easily? _No. I know why. It's because for some reason I don't want to punish him. I can't find it in myself to punish him because he's like a gundam model to me. He's my creation. He's just a lost keronian in a pit of keronians I created._

The empathy he had gained as Keroro for the keronian race had its downsides. Because now he couldn't do anything to hurt Agugu while Agugu could continuously hurt him.

He was going to lose, because he could do nothing to him. He couldn't protect himself. And nobody was coming for him.

Keroro felt like this was the last time he might be able to be scared.

* * *

Tamama opened his eyes in his bed. He wasn't fully healed by far, but thanks to Keroro quickly zooming him off to treatment he was healing.

It was rather boring laying in bed with no one there. Tamama felt this deep sadness in his heart like Keroro wasn't going to visit him. _Actually I know that. I might never see Keroro again._

He closed his eyes, feeling lost and this deep feeling of wanting to do nothing at all. He just wanted Keroro by his side and that was never going to happen again.

His adventure with Keroro had ended. He'd never come back.

"No!" A high pitch scream squeaked in Tamama's ears.

Tamama looked around. Nobody in the medical bay reacted. Had he been the only one to hear it? _Keroro. That was Keroro's scream._ He was very used to it on Pekopon. Had that been why he was the only one to hear it? Because he was so used to picking up on Keroro's high pitch pathetic squeals?

He wanted to giggle a bit that Keron's god still had such a pathetic scream, but a different thought went to his head. _Why is Keroro screaming? Is he okay?_ He pulled himself up and off the bed.

"Patient Tamama you aren't healed enough to be walking on your own yet." A medic told him.

"I don't care." Tamama hissed. "My boyfriend might be in trouble. I'm gonna go check it out."

The medic didn't really know what he was talking about but with how Tamama glared daggers at them they knew it was a death sentence to get in his way, so they let him be on his way.

Tamama stumbled past him.

Once he was out of the medical bay, Tamama tried to run. He didn't do very well tripping every now and then but he followed desperately where the source of the scream had emitted from.

 _Keroro. Keroro!_ He thought to himself, desperately. What was happening? Had he changed his mind about ascending back to the heavens? Did the heavens hurt?

He eventually came across a door that was open a crack. He saw the Demon Sergeant sigh and walk out of the door as if he couldn't stand to see what was happening inside.

"K-keroro! Where is he? I heard him in pain!" Tamama yelled worriedly.

The Demon Sergeant's eyes widened as Tamama moved forward to get to the crack in the door. The Demon Sergeant stopped him with one hand since Tamama was still incredibly weak from his injuries.

"Kid. You do not want to see what's in there. Trust me on this." The Demon Sergeant told him. "I've been instructed to guard this door while the operation's takenin' place and I'll do my job."

Tamama bit down on the demon sergeant's arm with all the power he had in his mouth.

The Demon Sergeant yelped as Tamama quickly moved towards the crack to look into it. Inside the room he saw Keroro and Agugu on two stretchers and a cable in both of their heads between them. Keroro looked like he was shaking as if he was trying to pull himself between two warring forces.

Tamama covered his mouth in horror. What was happening? Why was Agugu on a stretcher too?

"You can not stop us from transferring Agugu's consciousness into your mind." The colonel mocked Keroro, "You are a benevolent god. That is what's kind of god you were. And a benevolent god can not destroy or punish what he has created. So you can not stop us. Stop struggling, it is a futile effort." The colonel drawled.

 _T-transfer Agugu's consciousness into Keroro's mind?_ Tamama repeated the words. Suddenly he knew what was going on. Keroro had been tricked. Keron had never intended to give up their god, or the power Keroro held.

They just didn't want Keroro to hold it. They wanted their next emperor to have it. So they had decided to destroy Keroro's mind and replace it yet again with another. Tamama didn't know how they had the technology to do such a complicated thing but it probably had something to do with the flyians.

 _How terrible! T-they...That can't do that to Keroro!_ He immediately became frightened for Keroro's sake. He moved closer to break through the door and come to Keroro's rescue despite his injuries.

"Oh no you don't." The Demon sergeant told him rubbing off the bite mark on his arm. He pulled Tamama away and punched him in the gut.

"UGH!" Tamama dropped to the ground, instantly winded. He coughed up a bit of blood. _One punch wouldn't do much normally but...I'm heavily injured right now._ The Demon Sergeant was stronger than him. More experienced.

The Demon Sergeant grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back upright. "You will not interrupt this. I'm sorry you had to see it because I'm under strict orders to silence anyone who does see it…." The Demon Sergeant frowned, "I guess it's okay the colonel said you were pretty expendable and useless anyway." He pulled out a knife.

Tamama drew his breath. _He's going to kill me!_ Tamama realized. He glanced at the door. He knew he wanted to save Keroro but he didn't have the materials right now. If he died he could do nothing for Keroro.

He struggled out of the Demon Sergeant's grasp as the knife just barely missed him. Tamama looked frightened and although he didn't know what to do he ran. He ran away despite the pain in his sides, legs and arms.

He ran as fast as he could away from the base, stumbling as he ran. And the Demon Sergeant did not follow him, content that Tamama was just leaving and running.

* * *

Tamama ran back out to the field. There were many bodies but more than anything there were flyians still in the sky and fleeing.

 _What do I do?_ Tamama wondered. Keroro's will was being deleted. Soon Keroro would be gone. And Tamama didn't have the power to fight all on his own.

 _If...If Kululu...Giroro or Dororo were still here we could fight as a team. I'm sure they'd be able to save him._ But he was all on his own. He was just Tamama.

And he was worried that he wasn't enough.

 _I need to do something. But I'm injured. I'm not powerful enough to save Keroro._ Tamama almost felt hopeless. He felt frightened of just how much he could lose because of his weaknesses.

Keroro was going to die if he didn't think of something fast. He was the only one who wanted to save him, the only one there who could do anything.

Tamama sniffled. Did he have the power to do anything though? _I don't save people! Keroro does. Keroro's always been my hero and has saved me countless times. How can I save him when I'm so weak right now?_ He wondered. _He's going to die if I just stand here crying and doing nothing!_

Tamama suddenly felt a warm familiar feeling. It was the feeling of being in Keroro's arms. He looked behind him and could almost see some sort of image of Keroro floating in the air.

Was it Keroro's form as a god? Or was it just his imagination? Tamama didn't know, but he cried. "I don't know how to save you!"

" _It's all right."_ The Keroro that may have been his imagination said. For all he knew this Keroro could be something that the Keroro getting deleted had projected to him though. Tamama didn't really know how this worked. _"I'll exist even after death. I'm eternal after all. I'm a concept that can be carried in every Keronians heart. Including yours."_ The image of Keroro kissed him gently on the cheek.

"But I don't want you to disappear!" Tamama declared. "Please...Please don't."

" _You heard what they said though. I'm a benevolent god. I can't stop them or punish them in anyway. A benevolent god has their faults, they can't protect themselves. I don't have a choice."_ The image pointed out.

"Then I'll punish them! I'll destroy them for you!" Tamama offered. "I'll hurt whatever is hurting you, Keroro-"

" _I wouldn't want you to make another mistake and put yourself down to help me. Remember the mistakes that happened with Mois? Remember how you wanted to help me and catch the flyians and how you hurt her to achieve that? It blew up in your face. And I would never want you to have to do such horrible things again."_ Keroro pointed out, kissing Tamama's knuckles.

Tamama shook his head. "I don't care! I don't care what I have to do! I'll do whatever sinful acts and evil is needed in this world to protect you!" He yelled.

The image of Keroro looked startled, like he wanted to argue against that.

"The only thing I care about is you, Keroro. My love for you, my love in my heart, it's the only good thing about me. For a while it was the only thing keeping me alive, so I'll do whatever it takes to keep you in my life!" Tamama vowed again.

He didn't know how he'd save him, but he would. He banished the image of Keroro away and walked forward, the pain in his throbbing legs nothing compared to the idea of losing Keroro.

Eventually he came across exactly what he knew COULD have the power to help Keroro. A fleeing flyian. It stopped once it saw Tamama.

More flyians stopped along with it. They listened for a moment to nothing, but they seemed to know what was going on.

" _Ah, so that god Keroro is finally being deleted."_ It was as if they could hear his mental screams. _"Good. We'll be able to come back sooner than we expected."_ They buzzed in excitement.

Tamama held his arm, trying not to collapse. "You give power, right? Give me power. I don't care if you have to live in my body or what, I need power." He huffed.

He heard the buzzing of the flyians as they began to laugh. _"Help a keronian? No way. And you can't catch us. It took Keroro to catch us. He was truly strong. A god. But now we no longer have to fear him."_ They mocked, _"You will lose your Keroro soon enough."_

"I need to save Keroro though! P-please..I'm begging you!" Tamama desperately said.

The flyians laughed again. _"You can't save him. You don't have the power. Only something of the same strength as a god has the power to save him now. And that certainly isn't you, mortal."_ They mocked. _"You truly are the most pathetic keronian we've come across falling for a god. Your love was truly hopeless from the beginning."_

"K-keroro...Might be a god. But he doesn't have everything. He's not powerful enough to protect himself. Because he's some sort of benevolent god." Tamama was trying to keep focused and not collapse. "He's a good god. But what he needs right now is malevolence. And I have plenty of that."

Tamama looked at the flyians who were just laughing. They weren't going to help him willingly. _They said they were mythical, right?_ They had powers.

And keronians didn't have to just get that power from having them live in them. If a Keronian ate a flyian than they would also gain intense power. Tamama didn't know how much.

As the flyians laughed and mocked him, Tamama managed to stand up straight and jump up. He had decided what he would do.

Somehow through sheer determination and movement, thinking of only the love Tamama had in his heart, he managed to grab a flyian and capture it.

" _What are you going to do?"_ The flyians didn't run, instead they continued to mock Tamama. _"Eat him? You will die. Young keronians like yourself can't handle flyians. They weren't raised on them. You will die a painful death as you just melt away into mold. There's no way your body structure can stand eating a flyian. You will lose your mind first and then your body."_

Tamama looked down at the flyian in his hand. He knew he could decrease this risk if he only ate a little bit of it but that wouldn't give him enough power to save Keroro. "You obviously don't know me then. I'm not like other young keronians. I'm an over-eater." Tamama declared.

He looked down at the flyian again in his hands. The others obviously didn't think he'd eat it. "I'm willing to lose myself as many times as needed to save Keroro." He declared. He didn't care what happened to his mind and body if it gave Keroro a chance of life. "If Keroro's a god and a god can't save him, then I'll become a demon. I know only one way to gain that power though."

He opened his mouth and ate the flyian. Immediately as it went down his throat he felt immense pain go through his body. He tried to keep himself grounded in the ground.

He looked at his skin, it looked as if it was raining. _No...It's melting!_ He realized to his horror. Little droplets of skin were falling to the ground like acid.

He grit his teeth. He knew if he screamed it might be all over. He needed to be the one keronian to handle this. _I eat gross things all the time. This is just like that. This isn't worse than Kululu's spicy curry. This isn't worse than salad._ He told himself over and over again.

He felt the power course through his body in ripples, hurting him over and over again he kept thinking about Keroro. Keroro, his love. He had to live for him.

He did not die. Eventually he managed to catch his breath. _Do I have the power to save Keroro now?_ Tamama wondered looking down at his hands.

He could feel his body shake. He realized almost immediately that that sort of ambition and cockiness just continued dissolving his molecules. His body truly wasn't meant to stand this sort of thing.

He looked up at the flyians. He could feel power- but not enough to save Keroro. _I'll use the power I got from that flyian to catch others. To eat_ _more._ He hadn't ever imagined himself hungry for bugs but he could feel himself lick his lips.

That must have been what the other keronians who used to eat the flyians felt.

He jumped up using his immense power to grab more flyians, they did not have a chance to run as Tamama flicked out his tongue and just gobbled up more flyians.

 _More! More! I've got to have more power if I'm to save Keroro!_ Tamama thought to himself. Perhaps he was the keronian who was meant to eat the flyians, because thanks to his already huge appetite he managed to be able to keep on cramming flyians into his mouth.

He just kept on grabbing flyians. They tried to flee once they realized Tamama was not dying- they tried to hide, but thanks to Tamama's new power he could sense them.

It wasn't like the first time he had faced them, or the previous times. He was the predator and he was stronger than them.

It didn't take very long at all for him to find all of them, and soon enough he had eaten all the flyians in existence. There wasn't a single one left.

 _I will be what Keron wanted. The keronian who withstands the flyians's power. I will become as powerful as Keroro so that I can save him._ Tamama thought to himself.

It didn't matter if he lost his mind from the power, he could already feel himself losing himself, all that mattered was that he had the power needed.

Was this how Keroro felt lost in a million Keroros? Tamama didn't know, all he knew was that all of his previous emotions were dissolving, being able to see a larger picture, compassion, everything. All that was left were the negative emotions, greed, selfishness, hunger, and how much he wanted Keroro.

Keroro would be his. He would save him. But it wouldn't be for Keron. It was for Tamama. Tamama would not let Keroro leave him alone, and lonely.

Tamama's entire body was thrown from dimension to dimension, from plane to plane. It felt like every part of his body was in a different location, on the ground, in the sky, splattered here and there. He just kept being thrown places.

It hurt and made Tamama's mind spin. Nobody was meant to have this much power. No one born a mortal keronian was meant to have this much power that was, but Tamama had dared to dream of it, and he had managed to live this long.

Tamama eventually saw a keronian in front of him. He recognized almost immediately that it was not Keroro- it was Tamama.

An image of the old Tamama before eating the flyians. "I don't need you any longer." Tamama said to his previous self. "I don't need to be you."

The other Tamama gave a timid nod. "Save him."

"I will. I will be Keroro's evil. I will hurt the people who hurt him." Tamama vowed. He then crushed the previous him under his hand.

They didn't need to co-exist.

He was thrown farther away from that place again. Throughout time and space. Everywhere. Tamama could see blurs of images of Keroros throughout generations, acting in wars, trying to end them, leading them, growing up.

All sorts of different Keroros, but there was always a Keroro watching the other Keroros. Eventually Tamama was just in front of that Keroro.

"What have you done?" The Keroro asked in horror. "You've hurt yourself for my sake...You've lost yourself, your humanity, your mortality….Being a god is a heavy toll! I would have never wished this fate on you!" Keroro cried.

Tamama smirked. "I'm nothing so heavy and good as a god. I am me. I have just created something new. I don't care what I am. But I'm no God. I'm closer to a Demon. A Demon that exists only to have you, Keroro." He walked over and kissed Keroro passionately.

Keroro pushed Tamama away after a moment, a sad look on his face. He still didn't want this fate for Tamama.

"All I care about is you. Keron could die for all I care for what they have done to you!" Tamama frowned, "And I will destroy them if they get in my way."

Keroro looked horrified. He held Tamama's hand. "I'm sorry that you had to become this way."

And then he disappeared. Tamama's mind had finally settled down. He was no longer everywhere and nowhere.

He was just near the base. And he finally had the power to do his task. He was a demon. He was Tamama.

And he was ready to fight.

* * *

Tamama walked into the facility that Keroro was being operated on, he pushed the Demon Sergeant away with a powerful force blast.

"What...The heck?" The colonel asked. "I thought you were going to guard the door." He glanced at the Demon Sergeant.

The Demon Sergeant groaned. He felt around his chest. "Several of my ribs are broken! And he didn't even touch me! He just lifted up his hand or somethin'."

The colonel looked confused. "That's...Tamama right? Just a normal member of the Keroro platoon."

Tamama walked up closer and closer to Keroro. Bullet fire began getting sprayed at him to stop him. However he just flicked all the bullets away deflecting them.

The colonel frowned, his legs shaking. What was going on?

"Hello! Let me introduce myself!" Tamama said cheerily. "I'm Tamama. People of Keron hear my name and be frightened for all eternity! For I am your nightmare, I am your demon! I will cloud your minds with all of your fears if you get in my way!" He just laughed.

"T-tamama...The Demon?" The Demon Sergeant asked. "It...It couldn't be...It's not possible. One keronian couldn't have eaten all the flyians and become a supernatural being right? Even back in the old days that wasn't possible! A mortal body couldn't withstand it!"

"...Tamama always was unstable. Perhaps he was so unstable that the two problems canceled out. The unstableness was able to co-exist in a harmful way." The colonel guessed.

Before Tamama could reach Keroro, Keroro got up. He pulled the cord out of his skull and quickly sealed his head shut with god-like magic. He smiled at Tamama, but it was clear that wasn't Keroro's smile.

It was Agugu's. Agugu had won.

"Oh thank god." The Colonel smiled, "We really need you to handle the situation at hand. This looks like it could potentially be a tough foe."

The colonel grabbed a phone and tried to call more of their troops into that room.

"No problem. After all I am a god now." Agugu grinned. "No wannabe demon can stop me." He waved his hand and things began to float. They launched themselves at Tamama.

Tamama just reached out and they all dissolved into ash. "You really going to try to fight me in that body? Even before Keroro was a god and I was his equal I was stronger than him!" Tamama mocked.

The doors flew open and troops started pouring into the room. Tamama simply snapped his fingers. As if by a burst of light the troops vanished, completely decimated.

Their hats were the only things left.

Tamama kept walking forward as the colonel desperately tried to shoot at him. Agugu shook his head and tried to do something, anything.

But nothing happened. Just black tar covered the ground where Tamama stepped, his footsteps echoing with death and destruction. Eventually he got to right in front of Agugu.

"Keroro is mine. Not yours." Tamama hissed at Agugu. He then leaned forward and kissed Keroro's body on the lips.

Agugu's eyes widened but he froze. Tamama used his power to enter Keroro's consciousness.

* * *

Tamama was no longer in battle. Instead he was in a white room, one that looked similar to the sterilized room that Keroro had been trapped in.

"Keroro?" Tamama asked. "Mr. Sergeant?" He asked a little more hesitantly.

He eventually saw Keroro in a chair, tubes were attached to his veins on his arms. Golden blood was being drained from his veins- it seemed to shimmer like light.

It was Keroro's god-like essence. It was all going to Agugu. Keroro had been trapped. He had been beaten.

"Keroro! I found you!" Tamama smiled.

"Don't come any closer." Keroro warned him. "I...I lost. Keron wants Agugu more. I can't go back to the heavens. I can't go to Pekopon. I can't even have my own body. This is my fate. To be a concept inside some greed filled emperor's mind." He sighed. "Leave me. I'm sorry about what happened to you but...I can't face the world again. It's too hard."

Tamama walked over to him and just frowned. He put his hands on the tubes in Keroro's arms and dissolved them, making them vanish.

He then grabbed Keroro's hands and pulled Keroro off the chair and into his arms. "You aren't allowed to abandon me!" He yelled, "I just lost myself for you. I became a demon to save you, I'm no longer the same person I was. My mind is tainted. It's gone. I only feel power now, part of it hurts. My body is crying." Tamama told him.

Keroro looked hurt, "I...I didn't want that to happen to you, Tamama. I'm so sorry."

"The least you could do is honor my sacrifice and come back with me! Take back your body! I lost myself for you. Now the two of us are going to be lost together." Tamama yelled.

That seemed to do something for Keroro. He moved his hand to Tamama's fingers and entwined them with his. He nodded.

Tamama smiled. A door appeared in the white room. They went through it together. Through a long hallway was no room-it was just darkness. But a large giant was in that darkness.

"Oh? Back for more?" Agugu mocked Keroro, "You can't hurt me."

"But I can." Tamama snarled. And in a moment's notice he raised his hands and pressed them against Agugu.

As if Agugu was being dissolved by acid, he screamed. "AHHHH! What are you doing?"

"Throwing you out of his body. However I doubt you have a body to return to now that you left your body so you're dying." Tamama hissed. "Get lost and good riddance."

Agugu got smaller and smaller as he dissolved. Soon enough Keroro and Tamama were no longer in Keroro's mind, they were outside of it.

The entire building had crumbled around them from battling inside Keroro's mind. The Demon Sergeant and the Colonel had clearly fled knowing that they'd be caught in the wreckage if they stayed, but Agugu's body still remained.

"Keroro might not be able to hurt his people but I can." Tamama frowned, and he stepped on the ground where Agugu's body had been.

Slowly Agugu became just a stain on the ground. His legacy was not an empire, it was just a stain.

Keroro tried not to look at it. He glanced at Tamama though. "Thank you, Tamama. I'm finally free thanks to you...No other keronians will hurt me or imprison me." He began to glow, "I...I think I've gone through enough. The heavens are calling me, the people who wanted me to stay here have fled. I'm finally free."

He pressed his hand to Tamama's cheek. "Thank you again. I would have never been able to go home if not for you."

"But, you can't go back to the heavens after all this!" Tamama cried. He still wanted more. He had saved Keroro, but he wanted him.

"I belong there. The Keronians have tried to play god for too long. It's time for me to leave them." Keroro started to float and Tamama could see his physical body start to become see-through as if it was leaving.

 _No! I don't want Keroro to leave me!_ Tamama thought. He was a demon now, he was just as powerful as Keroro. But he could never go where he was going. He was much too sinful, to evil.

Tamama realized as he watched the man he loved that he didn't want to let him go, he wanted Keroro to be his at whatever cost. His mind only felt desire, it didn't give sacrifices and question what was right.

He had lost himself.

So instead of letting Keroro go up to the heavens he grabbed his arm. He pulled Keroro into his arms and kissed him passionately.

He began to glow too, but not in the bright way that Keroro was glowing. _We won't go to the heavens. We'll go to a place that is just for us. A paradise for just us and nobody else._ He had been to many dimensions when the flyians had thrown his mind and body everywhere.

And there was one place he knew he belonged. It was no heaven- it was much more like the underworld. And he'd drag Keroro there too if he had to.

"You're mine." Tamama told Keroro, kissing him.

Keroro looked confused.

"We'll be together forever because I'm yours and you're mine. You aren't leaving me." Tamama ordered. "You've existed for these selfish keronians for too long. You've been here for others for far too long. You've helped keron for much too long. So it's time to do something for yourself now. It's time to live for me. I'll love you forever. So you should be mine."

Keroro looked worried about how little Tamama was thinking about this. He couldn't just abandon the heavens and Keron. He couldn't be dragged to the underworld even if he loved Tamama.

Part of him wanted to be Tamama's it was true, but Tamama really was talking about some things that seemed far out of reach and honestly a bit scary, like there would be negative consequences for the world if he just abandoned it. "Tamama...I love you, but..." Keroro sighed. "It's time for my story to end."

Tamama kissed him and he could feel both of them being dragged down. He was not ascending at all.

 _Is it really time for my story to end though?_ Keroro wondered. He remembered what the colonel had said. He was a concept. A concept was an idea, an unending.

His story would never end. There would always be a need for a Keroro and Keroro would always exist in people's minds.

 _I can't abandon Tamama._ Keroro realized. _I am a god. I did things that I wasn't supposed to. I fell in love with a keronian. I loved him more than the others. And my love was so powerful it destroyed him. It dragged him to sin and ruin because he couldn't bare to be without me._

He couldn't just leave him now, not until Tamama was better. Tamama would become a concept too and he did not want him to suffer.

So he allowed himself to be dragged away. _I might suffer from the keronians dragging me back. I might suffer from not being in my right place or being able to help, but that is my destiny._ Keroro had to forever suffer, for he was a concept.

And a concept never ended. There was always the chance for pain.

Keroro was dragged into Tamama's warm embrace, and they kissed. All they needed was each other, no keron, no nothing else.

All they knew was their own feelings, some love and some sin. And deep in the pits of the underworld they spent their time embracing each other. The years became centuries, centuries became thousands and thousands of years.

Time moved on. They began to forget about Pekopon and their eternal promises to friends. They forgot their friends faces and names as they just found their binds with each other.

Keroro was not allowed to help Keron, he was too distracted. He was forced to forget as time kept marching on.

Someday he hoped to remember the other places that had given him happiness, any friends he had made along the way, but he felt like he had too much of a responsibility towards Tamama at the moment. He was going to help him someday overcome being a demon. Tamama however didn't seem to want that very much and it just became a torrid of being with each other every day giving into every indulgence that they had.

Everything became a blur. And the story of Keroro finally came to an end.

* * *

In the more recent years after the war on Keron, Keroro's friends looked up at the stars on Pekopon. They had never heard what became of Keroro, but they all hoped that he was happy.

"Do you ever wonder where Keroro and Tamama are?" Giroro asked Dororo one day. "I mean I understand Keroro not coming back...But Tamama?"

"They're probably happy together." Dororo decided. "Tamama did love him after all."

Giroro nodded. "I wonder how Keron's doing…Last time I checked Garuru had said that it had become a place of ruin. Thanks to war decimating the planet it's very weak and other aliens started invading it or trying to just like they used to do with Pekopon."

"At least it lightens Pekopon's load." Dororo pointed out, "Now not all the aliens are coming here."

Giroro nodded, still a bit worried. "I...I still regret that I couldn't bring Keroro home. I should have tried harder!" He cursed.

Dororo pat his back. "He's here...Inside each of our hearts. I'm sure he's safe." Dororo tried to reassure him.

Giroro still cried. He missed Keroro. He wanted to see his friend again. Even if he was a God. "Is he though? If Keron's in ruin...Well he wouldn't allow that?"

Dororo said nothing. He did not know.

Giroro was unaware that Tamama had imprisoned him, not letting Keroro help his planet.

* * *

Fuyuki stared at the stars with Momoka. They both missed Keroro and Tamama so much.

"I...I worry about him...About Tamama." Momoka confessed.

Fuyuki nodded but placed his hand on Momoka's. He pointed to the sky. "When I look at the stars I see Keroro. I know he's still there and my best friend. He's probably remembering me and waiting for me to get perfect space travel to Earth." He smiled at Momoka, "Still I don't think Keroro or Tamama would want us to be all sad for their sake. They want us to be happy."

Momoka nodded. She agreed. She gave Fuyuki a quick peck on the cheek.

Keroro was up there, somewhere. And he was probably thinking about them.

* * *

Everybody missed Keroro and Tamama in their own way. To Natsumi, looking at various things Keroro had used to do and missing them, to Saburo mentioning him on his radio station, to even Koyuki hoping that Dororo's friend would come back.

Even Kululu and Angol Mois who were not on Pekopon any longer and much too distracted by raising a kid wondered where Keroro was and what had happened to him.

Someday they all wished Keroro and Tamama would come back.

But that's another concept a happy ending. Would Keroro and Tamama ever come back? Was Pekopon their happy ending or was it each other?

Freedom or imprisonment? Keron or Pekopon? The story of Keroro was over. The concept that he was would never leave though. It would never end.

* * *

 **Hmmm...Maybe a little bit of an epilogue was too much and that made the ending feel too abrupt. I just felt like I should probably mention the other characters but it seems a little weird.**

 **I tried to leave things a bit open ended? You can decide for yourself if this was a happy ending and if Keroro and Tamama ever manage to return to Pekopon someday.**

 **Okay, I said I'd talk about the original story. It was all mostly the same for the basic plot stuff until the second arc. Then 10 years passed instead of 1 and Keroro and Tamama were not married...but I'm going to say living together domestically but haven't officially put any labels on their relationship because Keroro is too dense to realize that Tamama needs and wants that sort of thing and wants to be like married. They had a little girl together that they adopted as well, but Tamama was a little jealous because he worried Keroro liked her a bit better than him and that he wasn't really her parent and just some guy living with her.**

 **Anyway the whole war with the Vipers and flyians thing happened and Tamama died. Keroro was broken and since they made up right before his death (because he was still hurt over the clone thing) he swore to raise their child together. Unfortunately the kid was taken by the colonel (because Agugu didn't exist in this version) and he told Keroro that they would kill her only if he let them harvest his blood pretty much constantly as some super powered drink. Similar to that one episode where it's revealed that Keroro's sweat causes super luck.**

 **Keroro did this, living his life in some sort of laboratory, only gundam models to pass his time. Eventually his kid died too and he lost it and decided that one of his gundam models was here. The story was going to start each chapter with him telling his daughter a story and then at the end it was going to be revealed that his daughter was a gundam model.**

 **Anyway I thought that was all dumb so I completely scrapped it, rewrote it and added Agugu as the person that people were explaining the concept of the flyians too in the very beginning and made sure that Tamama did not die because this was a kerotama story. I still didn't know if I could give it a full happy ending so I kind of made it up to you? A bit? I don't know.**

 **I'm glad I rewrote it because the original draft seemed really weird.**

 **Please tell me what you think.**


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